


Flame and Claw

by Kurganxy



Category: Supernatural RPF, The Chronicles of Amberdrake - Loren K. Jones
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Atlantis, Bottom Jensen Ackles, Dragons, High School, Homophobia, M/M, Magic, OP Jared Padalecki, Soulmates, Temporary Character Death, Time Travel, Top Jared Padalecki
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:06:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 40,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24982054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kurganxy/pseuds/Kurganxy
Summary: At the tender age of 16, Jared lost the love of his life in a horrific act of violence, then spent the next 3 decades looking for a way to get Jensen back. The answer comes from a most unexpected source, in the form of an inheritance from a relative he didn't even know he had.
Relationships: Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki
Comments: 8
Kudos: 26





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Ok so this is my first time writing anything like this so please be kind. I’m editing it myself as I write so any mistakes are all on me. 
> 
> I just got this idea and thought what the heck. The worst that can happen is that it sucks right?
> 
> Anyway I made Jared and Jensen the same age moving Jensen birthdate to 1982. I also made them only children. Not really sure where this will go so I hope someone out there enjoys reading it as much as I’m enjoying writing it.
> 
> Do I really have to say that I don’t own Jared and Jensen? Any resemblance this story may have to real life, people, or events is strictly coincidental.

**Prologue**

_He was having the dream again. He loved this dream. Loved and hated it. Even knowing how it would end, how it always ended, he couldn’t help but sink deeper into the feelings the dream evoked._

_It always started out the same way. Jensen, sprawled back against the sheets of his bed, staring up at Jared with so much love and trust. Jared moving gently, hesitantly inside him for the first time, careful not to hurt his boyfriend. Fingers intertwined above Jensen’s head. A sheen of sweat on Jensen’s chest glistening from the light coming in through the blinds of the darkened room. They didn’t speak. After six years of being best friends, and two years of secret dating, they didn’t need words. Everything they had to say to each other had already been said a hundred times, a thousand. Not nearly enough._

_Jared often wished that he said the words. Just one more time. He couldn’t have known that he would never have the chance again..._

Before the dream could become the nightmare it always evolved into, Jared was jarred from sleep by a loud banging noise. Sitting up abruptly, he was momentarily blinded by the morning sunlight streaming in through the blinds he had forgotten to close the night before. Shielding his eyes, he cursed and looked around for whatever had woken him. The clock next to his bed showed 6:14am and he cursed again. His first class wasn’t until noon and he had been up till two grading papers. Not seeing anything out of place Jared decided it must have been his imagination and began to lay back down, only for the banging to come again. Who the hell was at his door this early in the morning? _Maybe they’ll go away if I ignore them,_ he thought.

He waited a minute, then got comfortable again, and closed his eyes…

Bang! Bang! “Doctor Padalecki?”, came the voice of a woman.

“Gods dammit.”, Jared blew out a breath and, concluding that he wouldn’t be getting back to sleep anytime soon, got up. “Just a minute!”, he called out.

Jared threw the covers off and sat on the edge of his bed for a moment, bending down to rub at his right knee through his pajama pants. Even after all these years, it still ached on cold mornings. Making his way downstairs took him a bit of effort. He was only fourty-three, and he tried to keep active, but some mornings he felt twenty years older.

The woman must have heard him because the knocking didn’t resume before he made it to the door. He could see her wavy figure through the window set in his front door but didn’t recognize her. Finally making it across the cold hard wood floor of the living room, he opened the door and took in the woman smiling brightly at him, like it wasn’t six in the morning. She was pretty, maybe early thirties. Her dark blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her light blue skirt suit was a little rumpled, though professional looking, as was the leather briefcase in her hand.

“Can I help you?”, he asked, maybe a little sharper than he’d intended. If she noticed she made no indication.

“Hi, Doctor Padalecki?”, he nodded in affirmation and she continued, “wonderful! You are not an easy man to track down. My name is Charlotte White. I work for Neiderman, White, and Associates down in Corpus Christi, Texas.” She held out her hand for Jared to shake and he took it automatically. _So, a lawyer then._

“What’s this about?”, he asked, curious despite himself. He hadn’t been back to Texas since his parents’ funeral over a decade before.

“Can I come in? I wont take but a moment of your time, and I promise I’m not trying to sell you anything.”, she said, beaming her white smile at him. After a moment, he opened the door wider and stepped back, inviting her in with a gesture. “Thanks so much. Its cold out here!”

“Of course,” he led her to the living room and offered her a seat. “Can I get you something to drink? I was just going to fix some coffee anyway.”

“Coffee would be wonderful, thanks. Black is fine.”

Ten minutes later, he walked back into the living room two black coffees in hand and found his coffee table had sprouted several stacks of paper thicker than his doctoral thesis. Eyeing the papers warily, he handed Charlotte one of the cups and took a seat on the couch across from her.

“Okay. So, can you tell me what this is all about now?”, motioning to the mound of paperwork.

“Well, as I said, I work for Neiderman, White, and Associates and we’re handling the estate for your late great uncle Harrison Kammer, as we have been handling all of his legal matters since the early fifties.”, Charlotte explained, only dropping her smile for a second at the mention of his supposed dead uncle.

“Um, I’m sorry but I don’t have an Uncle Harrison.”, said Jared, confused.

“He was your mother’s great uncle. Apparently, he wasn’t close to the rest of the family so its not surprising you’ve never heard of him. He passed away about three weeks ago and left everything to his only living relative, Jared Tristan Padalecki… The entire estate, including his house, bank and investment accounts all go to you. You may not have known him, but he obviously knew of you.”

Jared was dumbstruck. He’d thought he had no family left after his parents’ accident, only to learn about an uncle he’d never heard of who was now gone too. Why had he never reached out to Jared?

After a few moments of silence, Charlotte cleared her throat breaking him from his reverie. Jared snapped his gaze up and apologized.

“Its fine. I’m sure it’s quite a shock.”, she reassured him with her patented smile, “is it okay if I go over the particulars with you?”

Jared agreed. Apparently, his uncle had been a bit of a recluse. Harrison’s father made a fortune in the oil industry in late nineteenth century and he and his brother Thomas were set to inherit the whole thing. Then, in 1925 he had some kind of falling out with his brother. Harrison sold the quarter of the business he had received on his eighteenth birthday to a competitor and took off for parts unknown. Most of the family pretty much wrote him off after. He returned fifteen years later, and kept to himself, adding to the collection he had started over the years he spent abroad.

“Collection?”, asked Jared, completely fascinated by her recitation of family history he had never heard. He had never met Grandpa Thomas as he had already been dead by the time Jared was born, but he had at least heard of him. To think that Harrison had been completely expunged from the annals of his family history. Whatever breach must he have committed to have warranted such an extreme reaction.

“Oh yes. Mister Kammer was quite the avid collector of all sorts of antiquities and curiosities from all over the world, especially those dealing with ancient mythology and the occult.”

That caught Jared’s attention. Being a professor of folklore and mythology at the University of British Columbia, he couldn’t help but find a kindred spirit in his recently deceased relative. If only he hadn’t lived in Texas. He had sworn he would never set foot in that accursed place ever again. Still, it wasn’t like he had much more it could take from him.

After his travels, his late Uncle Harrison had built a house north of Port Mansfield on the gulf coast, filling it with all manner of strange artifacts, art, and books. And apparently, the whole thing, along with some extremely healthy bank accounts, were now his.

It was nearly eleven by the time he finished signing all of the _extensive_ paperwork and arranging to visit the house during winter break, which was only about a month out. After seeing Charlotte to the door and thanking her again, he only had about an hour before his class that day.

As he was getting dressed for the day, he could help imagining that Jensen would have gotten a kick out of this whole situation.

**Chapter One**

Jared Hated flying, especially on holidays. Between last minute papers and a faculty Christmas party, it had taken him until December 19th to get everything in order to make the trip to see his uncles, no, his house, down in Texas. After nearly nineteen hours spent in the air and various layovers, he finally arrived at McAllen International Airport at ten at night, tired and with his knee killing him. Even first class lost some of its luster after the first few hours. He really wished he would have just chartered a jet, because apparently, he could afford things like that now.

He’d splurged a bit and bought a brand-new Lincoln Navigator over the phone and arranged for it to be waiting on him at the airport. There was no way he was going to risk having to squeeze his 6’ 4” body into a tiny rental car. He picked up the keys from the curtesy desk and after giving his sweet new ride a perfunctory inspection, made his way to the near-by Hilton where he’d made a reservation. He figured he’d get a good night sleep and then make the long drive to the house in the morning. Check in was fast and painless and he supposed the room was nice, but right then, all he really cared about was taking a shower, and getting to sleep. He considered ordering room service but just shook his head. “Tomorrow.”

~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~

He was on his way early the next morning. After a quick workout in the fitness center and breakfast in the hotel restaurant, Jared bundled his things into his SUV and started the two-hour drive to the coast. It was a vast difference from where he’d been the previous day. It had started showing in Vancouver the week before and now he was driving under cloudless skies at a balmy 73°F.

He wasn’t sure how to feel about being back in Texas after so long. It hadn’t been his home in years. He’d left San Antonio right after finishing high school and accepted early admissions at UC Berkley in California, rarely making it back to visit his parents on the occasional Christmas or Thanksgiving, at least until they were killed in a car accident in his junior year at Berkley. Their funeral was the last time he ever set foot on Texas soil.

After graduating with a bachelor’s in folklore and mythology (yes, that’s a thing), he’d accepted an assistant professor position at UBC while doing his post-grad and earning his PhD in mythological studies and literature. He knew his parents hadn’t blamed him. They had known what it cost him every time he went back to San Antonio. Still, he knew it had been hard on his mother especially. She told him once that it felt like she had lost both her sons that day.

Jensen had spent a lot of time at Jared’s house growing up getting sway from his overbearing father. As far as he knew, Mister Ackles had never need physically abusive, but he could cut just as easily with his words. They’d met in the third grade when Jensen’s family moved to San Antonio from Dallas when his father accepted a position at Rolling Oaks Baptist church.

_As soon as the Mrs. Addison introduced the new student as Jensen, some of the kids in the back of the class started snickering, mocking him, calling him Jenny. Jensen just stared them down then completely ignored them as he walked down the aisle like he owned the school. He was tall, well taller than Jared at the time (he’d been a bit of a scrawny runt at eight), with short blond hair and intense jade green eyes. When he sat in the seat two rows down from Jared’s, they locked eyes, Jared realizing he had been staring at new kid the entire time. He flushed scarlet and looked away from the small smile on Jensen’s face, hiding his face behind his shaggy hair, having no idea why he was so embarrassed. Jared is sure he was already a little in love with him._

_They didn’t even speak for the first few weeks. They were in same class, had the same lunch time and PE class, but Jensen seemed to keep mostly to himself. Then about three weeks later, Jared was swinging with a couple of other kids in the playground when he was shoved off the swing from behind, landing hard on the pavement and skinning his knees and palms. Before he could even think about the pain, he heard a yelp from behind and spun around. Jake Thompson was sprawled on his ass, lip busted, with Jensen standing over him. Jared just stared at them, confused, until Mister Waverly came over and hauled Jensen and Jake back into the school. Later, after getting his knees bandaged in the nurse’s office, Jared found out it had been Jake that had pushed him off the swing and Jensen had run over and decked him._

_They both got a week of in-school suspension, but Jake never messed with Jared again after that. The next day at lunch, Jared sat next to Jensen and handed him his pudding cup. Jensen took it without saying a word and peeled off the foil top. Jensen stayed over at his house for the first time that weekend and they were inseparable for the next eight years, with Jared’s mom more or less adopting Jensen._

Jared was pulled from his memories when the GPS told him he had arrived at his destination. Be barely remembered the drive, lost in the past. As he pulled into the driveway of the enormous house, Jared could only gape open mouthed. Calling it a house was doing it a massive disservice. Charlotte hadn’t shown him any pictures, so he had imagined the place to be a larger than normal house. What stood before him was reminiscent of an English manor he had visited once on research trip he had taken to Europe.

The stone building was the only thing in sight for miles around and waves crashed on the shore nearby, infusing the cool breeze with the tang of salt. It rose two stories plus what he figured was an attic from the high-pitched roof and dormer windows. It was one of those buildings with actual _wings_ for Hecate’s sake. It had freaking turrets on the corners! He wasn’t sure how long he stood there gawking like a rube in the big city for the first time, but a car horn behind him made him jump. He saw a dark blue Audi pulling up behind his Navigator and assumed it must have been Charlotte. They had made plans to meet up at the house that morning so she could hand over the keys and answer any questions he might have.

She got out of her car and joined him beside his SUV, “Its really something isn’t it?” Jared could only nod. “Apparently your great uncle had it shipped over from England in the 1930’s and reassembled here, stone by stone, and then renovated the whole thing.”

“Why would he do that?”, Jared asked, incredulous. The cost must have been astronomical, especially back when crossing the Atlantic was much more of an undertaking.

“Allegedly, it belonged to your family back in the seventeenth century when it was built. Supposedly, he got it for a song and a dance from the man who owned it at the time. Something about outstanding debts to the crown or something. I’m not entirely sure, but I can look it up for you if you’d like.”

“No, no. That won’t be necessary. Obviously, eccentricity runs in the family.”, he said, giving Charlotte a warm smile, then flushed in embarrassment, holding out his hand, “Oh, I’m sorry. You came out all this way and I’m being rude. Its nice to see you again Ms. White.”

“Charlotte, please,” she laughed, taking his hand, “and I had the very same reaction the first time I saw this place. What say we go inside? You haven’t seen anything yet.”

“To be honest, I’m a bit overwhelmed just seeing the exterior, but sure. Lead the way.”

Her eyes crinkled at that. Jared followed behind his uncle’s, _his?,_ lawyer to the massive nine-foot tall oak door. As he got close, he noticed the symbol of the triple goddess (a full moon between two outward facing crescent moons) inlaid in what he guessed was silver. He supposed it made sense if Uncle Harrison had been into mythology and the occult. Jared was surprised when Charlotte pulled an ornate brass skeleton key from her purse and handed it to him.

“You should do the honors.”

Examining the key revealed the same triple goddess symbol etched on the handle. The lock turned smoothly, and Jared took a breath before opening the heavy looking door. It swung open on silent hinges and Jared stepped inside then stopped a moment, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darker interior. What he could see just from the foyer took his breath away.

The interior, like the exterior was all grey stone blocks cut so perfectly there was barely a seam. Hard wood floors polished to a mirror shine were scattered with exquisite rugs. Intricately carved crown molding adorned the walls and priceless antique furniture, glass fronted cases displaying artifacts, weapons, and other works of art decorated every room. There was even a full suit of armor standing guard down a hallway in its own nook. As he explored room after room Charlotte told him what little she knew about the collection as well as the house. Not including the ten bedrooms, each with its own en suite bathroom upstairs, the house boasted a grand foyer, gallery, two sitting rooms, a family den, formal dining room, a study/library filled to the brim with old books and manuscripts, a conservatory and a massive eat-in kitchen (with dated appliances), and even a freaking armory.

Every time Jared entered a room, there was some new treasure or exotic curio or fragment of an ancient stone tablet. One entire display case was devoted to various gemstones and crystals of all sizes, cut and raw. Another wall held various implements of medieval war. It would take him months to discover everything. Oh, and let’s not forget the fully stocked wine cellar, the eight-car garage filled with vintage classics, and the _secret passages!_

Most importantly, while elegant and clean, nothing about the house screamed pretentious like he had feared. For every expensive antique or priceless work of art, there was a comfortable sofa or quirky painting. The library was sprinkled with cozy reading nooks. Jared thinks he might have liked his Uncle Harrison.

After guiding Jared through the house, Charlotte concluded the tour at the master bedroom with its massive canopy bed of hand-carved teak and matching furniture. On one wall hung a painting of a beautiful young blond man atop of black stallion and Jared could help but admire it. The huge en suite had obviously been updated since the original with polished white marble and a sunken tub large enough to almost swim in. Uncle Harrison certainly didn’t skimp on his creature comforts.

As they were walking back towards the stairs to return to the first floor, they passed a door Charlotte hadn’t shown him.

“What’s in there?”, he said pointing to the non-descript door in the middle of the hall.

Charlotte looked startled by the door, giving it an odd look. “I’m not sure,” she said, turning the doorknob and finding it locked. She stepped back saying, “That’s weird. There’s no keyhole.”

“Maybe its locked from the other side,” supposed Jared, trying the knob himself… the door swinging open easily. “Hmm. Must have been stuck.”

On the other side of the door was a dark, narrow set of stairs, presumably leading to the attic. Shrugging at Charlotte, he just shut the door and motioned for her to continue downstairs. He’d check it out later. They discussed a few more things pertaining the estate and various investment accounts before Jared escorted Charlotte to her car.

“Remember Jared, I’m your attorney now, so if you have any questions or concerns you have my number. Feel free to use it at any time, night or day.”

After she drove away Jared ambled his way back into the house and just sat in den for a while. He lay out on the comfortable sofa, exhausted all of a sudden, forearm over his eyes and just tried to absorb everything. What was the point of having all these wondrous things without someone to share it with?

Jared didn’t think he could miss Jensen more than at that moment. Jensen would have absolutely loved this place. It wasn’t that he was materialistic or greedy, and it’s not like they were poor growing up, but they certainly weren’t rich either. Apparently, Grandpa Thomas had gambled away most of the family fortune by the 1940’s. What little remained went to his son after he died, and his father’s family was staunchly middle class.

Jen’s family had even less, scraping by on his father’s associate pastor position at the Baptist church in town and his mother working at a dentist’s office. Jensen had always fantasized about them getting away from Texas, mainly to escape his preacher father, and making it big. Maybe in Hollywood, or wall street, or some start up dot com company. It never really mattered what they did, as long as it was away Texas and as long as they did it together.

Jared didn’t remember falling asleep, just found himself having the dream again.

_They had thought they had planned everything perfectly. Jensen’s parents had planned a weekend trip to Austin for their twentieth anniversary. Jared had told his parents that he was staying over at Jensen’s to keep him company while his parents where away. They had been sleeping over at each other’s houses for years by that point, so he knew it wouldn’t be a problem._

_After the obligatory warning not to have any parties while they were gone and not to burn the house down, and getting hugs from Donna, Jensen’s mom, they spent an hour watching TV in the living room, just to be sure they wouldn’t be interrupted before racing each other upstairs._

_It wasn’t like they hadn’t fooled around before that. They had been trading blow jobs for almost a year but had decided to wait to go all the way until they were both sixteen. Jared’s birthday had been three weeks before and knowing about the upcoming anniversary, they figured it would be perfect to wait until they could be completely alone._

_Jensen closed the door behind them, and Jared didn’t even have a chance to crow about his victory before he had Jared on the bed with his tongue down his throat. Jensen was a really good kisser, not that Jared had anything to compare it to, but Jensen kissed him with his entire being. Like nothing else in the entire world mattered in that moment. They only paused to get their shirts over their heads and barely even then. Then it was just mouths and hands and skin. They had already discarded their sneakers downstairs, and they made quick work of their jeans. Jensen gave him one more lingering kiss before finally breaking away, foreheads centimeters apart and gazed down at Jared._

_“Are you sure?”, he asked, concern radiating in his eyes._

_Jared merely nodded and flipped them over, startling a laugh out of Jensen. He worked his way down peppering kisses along Jensen’s neck, stopping at his collarbone, biting and sucking a bruise into the freckles there. Jensen’s throaty moans and whines working Jared up more as he sucked on one of Jen’s nipples, eliciting a hitched inhale. Jared grinned. He loved how Jensen’s nipples were super sensitive. Spending a little more time on the other nipple, Jared kissed his way down the smooth expanse of skin past Jensen’s navel and to the line of soft hair disappearing into his boxers. He stopped and snuck a peek up at his lover. Jensen’s eyes were nearly closed but Jared knew he was watching him._

_There was already a wet spot at the front of Jensen’s boxers and Jared lowered his mouth to suck on it through the cotton. Jensen arched his back, moaning louder than before._

_“Come on Jare,” Jensen pleaded._

_“What do you want?”_

_“You know what I want dammit!”_

_“Say it.”_

_Jensen sat up on his arms and locked gazes with Jared’s smiling eyes. “Suck my dick, Bitch.”_

_“You’re wish is my command… Jerk.”_

_Scooting down the bed, Jared pulled down Jensen’s boxers, extracting a hiss from him at the rub of fabric over his hard cock. Removing his own shorts, Jared resumed his position over Jensen’s legs. Starting at his knees, Jared kissed, sucked, and bit his way up Jensen’s thigh, paying special attention to the pulse point close to the crease._

_He knew Jensen was getting impatient but Jared didn’t care. He wanted to make this perfect for Jensen, for both of them. They would only ever have one first time at this. Finally, reaching Jen’s sack, Jared took first one ball then the other, rolling them around in his mouth, wringing another loud groan from the boy under him. After playing with his balls a few minutes, Jared licked a stripe from the base of Jensen’s cock all the way to the tip, drinking down the bead of precum there, before swallowing the whole thing in one go, nearly bringing Jenson off the bed._

_Jared had had a lot of practice give head, mostly because Jensen enjoyed it so much, and Jared loved doing things to Jensen that drove him mad with lust. But also, because he loved the taste of Jensen on his tongue. It didn’t hurt that he had no gag reflex either._

_He set a steady rhythm, using his hands when he had to pull off some to breath, but mostly keeping his nose in buried Jen’s pubes, swallowing around the hard rod in his throat. It wasn’t long before Jensen’s breathing became labored, getting closer until, with a yell of Jared’s name, he started spilling, Jared pulling up to taste Jensen’s flavor on his tongue, swallowing everything he had to give until Jen tapped him of the shoulder when it got too sensitive._

_With a pop, Jared let go of the softening dick in his mouth and worked his way up to kiss his lover, letting Jensen taste himself on Jared’s tongue. They made out slowly for a while, letting Jensen get his breathing back to normal. Jared had done a lot of research online in preparation for this and read that it would be less painful for the receiving partner if they got off first. Jensen had just said that it would hurt at first no matter what they did, but Jared wanted to do everything he could to make it good for him. After a few minutes of kissing, Jensen finally pulled back and stared at him._

_“You’re stalling.”_

_“No, I’m… Yeah ok.” Jensen knew him so well. When they had talked about doing this, Jensen had been adamant that Jared top him. Jared’s height had spring up over last last year and little Jared had kept up with the growth spurt. He knew he wasn’t exactly small and he’d had his finger in Jensen’s ass before. It was a ridiculously small opening._

_“Come on babe. We talked about this.”, Jensen cupped the side of Jared’s face, thumb brushing over lips. Jared opened and sucked on it, smiling wickedly as he gently bit down on the knuckle. He leaned close to kiss Jared softly, just a touch. Then turned over and grabbed the tube of KY they had stolen from the drug store. He threw the tube over his shoulder and Jared caught it reflexively._

_Jared took a steadying breath and placed a tender kiss on the back of Jensen’s neck, licking the freckles he loved so much along Jensen’s shoulders, and slowly worked his way down the lean, muscular back. They had both joined the baseball and swim teams when they started high school, so they were both very fit. Sucking a hickey into the small of Jen’s back, Jared moved lower. Brushing one cheek, then the other with his lips, he paused and said, “I wanna try something, okay?”_

_Jensen just made an affirmative noise, head firmly on the pillow._

_Jared hitched Jensen’s hips up a bit and then licked down the crease of his ass. Jensen hissed in a breath but didn’t make a move to stop him. Taking that as tacit approval, he worked his tongue lower, until he found the small furled pucker. That got a reaction from Jensen. He arched his back, making a high-pitched keening Jared had never heard him make before._

_Licking all around the tiny entrance, he was glad to find only the taste of sweaty skin, maybe a little muskier, but definitely not unpleasant. After he get got Jen’s hole nice and wet with his saliva, he began to work the tip in, only a bit at first, until he felt Jensen relax. Judging by the noises Jensen was making, this had been a really good idea. He used more of his tongue, opening him up gently and after several minutes, Jensen spoke up, voice husky and just a little out of breath._

_“Use your fingers”_

_That’s what Jared had been waiting for. Sitting up a little, he told Jensen to turn over. He really wanted to watch Jen’s face while he was doing this. He was happy to see that his boyfriend was rock hard one more. He gave it a little squeeze, Jensen’s hips coming up again, then he Jared’s hand away, giving him a look. He understood,_ not until he was inside Jensen.

_Opening the tube of lube, Jared poured a generous amount onto his finger and started opening Jensen up carefully. He’s only ever used one finger before, but he knew he would have to be much more thorough. When he was sure Jensen was ok with the first finger, he pulled it out and added more lube, then slowly used two fingers. Jensen winced, but just nodded that he was ok. It took a while longer work both fingers inside, but along the way, he must have touched Jensen’s prostate because he yelled out and his dick spat out a stream of precum across his abs. Jared just smiled and did it again._

_“Ready for another finger?”, Jared asked softly, watching Jensen’s face. He only nodded; eyes closed._

_Using yet more of the KY, he coated three fingers and unhurriedly worked them into Jensen, it didn’t take long before Jensen was panting, swearing up a storm as Jared continued to hit his prostate. He leaned down, intending to take Jensen’s cock in his mouth, only to be stopped by a hand._

_“If you do that, you’ll never make it into me. I’m ready babe… please…”_

_Jared just beamed at his lover, acknowledging his words. They had decided against using condoms. They had never been with anyone else, and neither one had any intention of ever doing so. Making sure to slather his aching dick with plenty of lube, Jared put a pillow under Jensen’s hips and ever so slowly, pushed his way into Jensen. To say that it was tight would be an understatement, but Jensen made no indication that he was in pain, so Jared continued until he was seated all the way to the hilt._

_He held still, gazing into his lover’s eyes, seeing everything he was feeling reflected back at him a hundred-fold. Sitting up a little, Jared leaned down to kiss Jared, biting at his lips. Jensen grabbed his hands and intertwined their fingers and lifting them up over his head. “Move.”_

_That was all Jared needed. He started slow, short thrusts as Jensen’s hard dick rubbed against his stomach. It was the closest he had ever felt to Jensen._

_Of course, that’s when Jensen’s father barged into the room. They had made it about an hour down I-35 before Jensen’s mom realized she had forgotten her purse, which had their reservations for the hotel. That had already put Mister Ackles in a foul mood. Finding his son’s best friend balls deep in said son… well he lost it._

_Apparently, he had suspected something had been going on, but he was sure it was only on Jared, with his too long hair and the looks he was always shooting at his son, disgusting, but he knew his son would never allow anything to happen. Jared hadn’t known anything about any of that until it came out at the trial._

_The only thing Jared knew was that he had been making love to his boyfriend for the first time one minute, and the next he was waking up in the hospital with multiple broken bones including a cracked skull from having been thrown into the dresser, internal bleeding, and a ruptured testicle. Jensen’s father had kicked the shit out of him while he’d been unconscious and after spending two weeks in a medically induced coma, he was allowed to wake._

_The first thing he saw was his mom’s tear stained face. She squeezed his hand gently and told him he was in the hospital, that there had been some kind of accident and that he was going to be just fine. Jared didn’t really hear much of what she said. He was confused and disoriented as a doctor check him over, trying to ask him questions he didn’t know the answers to. His first conscious thought was for Jensen but was too afraid to ask. He felt Jensen’s absence like a missing limb. He knew Jensen would have been the first one by his bedside if he were able. After the doctors and nurses were gone, with their empty platitudes of ‘you’re a very lucky young man’ and ‘it could have been much worse’, but not saying a single word about his boyfriend, he prepared himself for the worst. Locking eyes with his mother, the only person in the room as his dad had gone back to work after the first week, Jared built up his courage, and managed to croak out one word._

_“Jens’n”, His mom just started crying and shook her head._

_They had to have him committed and put on suicide watch after that. He didn’t eat or sleep or even move for two months. He missed Jensen’s funeral, though he was later told it was attended by half the school and people from all over the state to show their support. It was a media circus with news cameras and reporters on one side and protesters from the local churches and faith groups on the other chanting hate rhetoric about God and faggots. It got out quick that Jensen had been caught in bed with his male lover. Many people applauded what Jensen’s father had done, calling it God’s justice._

_Jared’s family had never been much for church. His parents were hippies in the 60s and admitted later that they had know about the two boys since middle school, long before Jared or Jensen understood what they were feeling. Luckily, the jury didn’t agree with the picketers and protesters and the ‘Great God Fearing People of Texas’ and chose to convict Jensen’s father of first degree murder and attempted murder and spent the next fifteen years on death row before being executed in 2013. Jared made sure to have a front row seat. None of that really helped Jared though. He spent the next year in and out of the hospital psychiatric ward and being admitted for malnutrition, and had his parents at ropes end, until the anniversary of Jensen’s death. It was the first and only time he had ever visited Jensen’s grave. His parents had volunteered to go with him, but he knew it was something he had to do alone._

_Jared just stared at the words written on Jensen’s tombstone, reading and re-reading the words, unable to believe the audacity:_

**Jensen Ross Ackles**

**March 1, 1982 ~ August 12, 1998**

**Our Beloved Son**

_Jensen fought for his life for five days before he died never having regained consciousness. The doctors said it was from intracranial pressure from swelling in his brain because of the beating administered by his father. And they had the NERVE to call him THEIR BELOVED SON?_

_Jared didn’t recall beating and kicking at the tombstone until his knuckles were bloody and the granite slab lay cracked on the grass. He came back to himself hunched over on his knees, sobbing into his aching hands, blood stained tears dripping into the grass over where his love lay buried. He was startled when someone began rubbing his back, and nearly fell over twisting around only to freeze at the sight of Jensen standing before him, as beautiful and angelic as ever. Jared practically teleported into Jensen’s chest and melted when he felt strong arms come around him. They stood there, Jared’s face in the crook of Jensen’s neck inhaling in the scent and warmth he never thought he would have again. He’s not sure how long they held one another, but hours after the Texas sun had set, Jared woke with Jensen’s last whispered word to him ringing in his ears. A promise that Jared had no intention of breaking:_

_“Live.”_

Jared woke with tears streaming down his face into his ears. The house dark and quiet around him; only the ticking of the grandfather clock in the corner breaking the silence. He must have slept through the afternoon and right on into evening. Sitting up, he rubbed his tired face, hunched into himself. It always took a while to get back in the here and now after seeing, feeling Jensen so clearly. Every. Damn. Time. Even after all these years.

He went through the calming exercises he’d learned in therapy, and after about ten minutes, felt put back together enough to get off the couch and make his way up the stairs. Small nightlights dotted his trek upstairs, guiding his way to the master bedroom. As he walked past the door to the attic, he noticed that it was open about halfway. He was sure that he’d closed it that afternoon. Shrugging to himself, he grabbed the doorknob, only to curse and shake his hand out from an electric shock. Carefully checking the brass doorknob for any residual jolts, he judged it safe and shut the door and stared at it for a moment before continuing on to the master bedroom, not bothering with the lights. 

He stepped into the luxurious bathroom, deciding to forgo a shower and just brushed his teeth and changed into his usual sleep pants and t-shirt. He’d fortunately been carrying his backpack with him as they toured the house, so he’d just left it in the room earlier. He really didn’t want to have to go back outside to get the rest of his bags. His stomach growled its displeasure as he changed, reminding him he hadn’t eaten since breakfast.

“Fuck it.”, he’d make something in the morning. Charlotte told him that people came in twice a week to clean and restock the fridge and pantry, so he threw himself down on the huge mattress. Someone had obviously been by to put fresh sheets on the bed, as it smelled clean. He really hoped Uncle Harrison hadn’t died in this bed. 

His last thoughts before slipping into slumber were of how the bed was much too large for one person.

**~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~**

Jared was startled out of dreamless sleep by a loud thump overhead. The dark room told him it was still the middle of the night. Lying still, Jared listened closely, but when no other sound came he concluded it was just the normal noises a house this old made. He was almost asleep again when the low creak of a door came from the hallway and he sat bolt upright. He sure as hell hadn’t imagine that. Grabbing his iPhone from the side table, he switched on the flashlight and swung it around the room, confirming he was alone.

Determining he wouldn’t be getting back to sleep without at least checking it out, he got out of bed and padded out into the hallway. He saw nothing out of the ordinary until he reached the door to the attic. Which was open again. _What the hell?_

Swinging the door all the way open, the light from his phone showed him what he’d seen that afternoon, a narrow set of plain wood stairs leading up. He blew out a breath and laughed at his nerves.

“What did you think Jared? That old Uncle Harrison’s ghost was just stopping in for a visit?”, he muttered under his breath. “And now I’m talking to myself.”

Figuring he may as well make sure something hadn’t fallen over upstairs, or that some animal hadn’t gotten in through a window, he made his way up the creaking stairs. When he reached the top, Jared shone his light around and found, to his complete bafflement, that instead of the cluttered mess of old furniture and discarded belongings he’d expected, Jared beheld a sight straight out of his favorite fantasy novels. Bookcases lined the walls, filled with ancient looking tomes in at least dozen different languages that he could decipher as well as a few that were a complete mystery and specially made cubbies held rolled up scrolls of parchment, some so old they would probably crumble to dust at a harsh breath. Along one wall was a collection of jars and bottles containing all manner of liquids and what he assumed was dried herbs or other bits of plants. He picked up a glass jar of something labeled as moonstone powder and another one as fermented spider eyes. He quickly replaced the last with a violent shudder. He _really_ hated spiders. The center of the cavernous room was take up by a couple of large stone-topped tables covered in medieval looking glass and brass alchemy equipment and an honest to goddess cauldron. 

He continued to explore what he was now sure was some kind of witch’s _(wizard’s)_ workshop or laboratory. Everything was clean, tidy and clearly labeled, as though it were all just waiting for Severus Snape to waltz in, cloak snapping around him. Charlotte had told Jared that his great uncle had been a collector of occult paraphernalia, but this was something else all-together. This wasn’t some kind of display. It was clear Harrison had believed himself to be some kind of magician or alchemist.

“What the hell is all this?” he wondered aloud.

At the back of the room under a tall window, situated away from anything else, sat a waist high stone plinth which held a wooden box about six inches squared by three inches tall and a folded piece of parchment laying against it. Written out in a beautiful, almost calligraphic, script was his name:

Jared Tristan Padalecki

Read this before anything else!

“Well, that isn’t ominous at all.”

He slowly picked up the letter and turned it over, finding the triple goddess symbol stamped into the wax sealing it. Breaking the seal, he unfolded the letter counting only two pages, front and back. He angled his phone to allow him to read. It was dated two months before Harrison’s death.

_Dear Jared,_

_If you have found this chamber, then it is as I had hoped, and you do possess at least some measure of the gift that flows in our family bloodline and that I have passed on everything that I have collected and learned this last half-century or so on to you. I am certain you must be thinking that Old Uncle Harrison was some crazy old kook that dabbled in superstition and faerie stories, but I can tell you my boy, with absolute certainty, that magic is very real. Oh, it is nothing like what it once was, millennia ago. For the magicians that loved a hundred thousand years ago, the things that I can do would have been laughed at as puerile. Even their children would have been capable of wonders I cant even begin to imagine. Then some calamity or perhaps disease killed off most of their population, I never found a satisfactory answer, but suffice to say, very few people these days carry even the smallest trace of the gift of magic in their blood. And fewer still believe enough to even attempt to use it. I am such an individual, as are you. I can say this with some degree of certainty because I warded the door to the attic against intrusion myself and only someone of my bloodline with the gift could have even found the door, let alone open it._

Jared paused, thinking back to Charlotte’s confused expressions that afternoon when he had called attention to the door. _Could it be…?_ It was insanity.

_Let me begin by saying I’m sorry my boy. Many times over the years I thought about contacting you, especially after reading about what happened to you and your young paramour when you were sixteen. It broke my heart, the cruelty of those that espouse faith and God’s word as justification for their hate. Alas, I am an old man, and have been set in my ways for a very long time. Please know that I understand, intimately, what you went through when you lost young Jensen. You see, I too lost the love of my life when I was but nineteen. Aiden was the son of one of my father’s business associates and we met when I was seventeen and he a year younger. You may have noticed his portrait in my bedroom. We fell in love, though in those days it was never done in the open. We spent nearly two years together. Steeling what time we could away from the rest of the world and our families. Suffice to say, my brother Thomas caught us and didn’t take kindly to my deviancy and aberrant life and conspired with some of his friends to teach us a lesson. Of course, things got out of hand when we fought back and my poor Aiden, well… enough said. Even after nearly a century it pains me when I think about him._

_After Aiden’s funeral I sold the quarter of the company that was in my name and made by way to Europe. You see, I had always had a fascination with the fantastical. I loved old stories of gypsies and witches, magic and the occult. I was convinced that somewhere out there was a way to bring my Aiden back. What a fool I was. I wandered from town to village, country to country for over a decade. I searched old monastery archives and read through ancient church drivel and doctrine hoping to find just a kernel of a clue. I spent weeks in musty libraries and even a few crypts all over Europe, the middle east, and even parts of Africa. I found plenty of old tomes and scrolls espousing real magic, but it always turned out to be nothing more than superstition and folk tales. I grew despondent of ever finding what I was searching for. My belief had already begun to wane years before, but then…_

Jared flipped over the page and continued reading, enraptured by the tale.

_It found me. Or rather she found me. To this day, I have never learned the reason she came up to me that night. I doubt I ever will now._

_I was in a little tavern about forty miles north of Bucharest in southern Romania. I’ll admit I had been drowning my sorrows for more than a few hours in a dark corner and was quite sloshed, when out of no-where, a little girl, who couldn’t have been older than perhaps eight or nine, comes over to my table and hands me a velvet draw string bag. She just set it in my hand without any explanation and turned around, disappearing into the crowd. I’ll admit I didn’t have the mental wherewithal at that point to even wonder what such a young girl was doing in a rowdy tavern well after midnight. I suppose I just assumed she was the tavern owner’s daughter or some such. Anyway, I stuffed the bad into my coat pocket and forgot about it for over a month._

_I was renting an apartment near Venice, Italy when I discovered the little bag in my belongings, and it took me a while to even remember where I’d gotten it or about the strange little girl in the tavern. I had collected many curiosities in over a decade of travel, shipping them back home to Texas to the manor I had been having rebuilt, so it wasn’t at all unusual to find some trinket or bauble amongst my things._

_Opening the draw string, I tipped out the contents into my palm and beheld the ring that fell out. It was a thing of beauty, fashioned of some unknown silvery metal with black swirls, and crowned by a large triangular cut ruby. I’d never seen anything like it, nor did I ever discover the metal used in its creation. Unfamiliar sigils encircled the band and engraved upon the ruby was an inscription in a language unknown to me. I rubbed the ruby to wipe a bit of lint off and, all of a sudden, there was a woman standing before me. I can admit that she scared the bejesus out me and I made quite the ruckus. I’m surprised no one came knocking at my door to see what all the fuss was about._

_She greeted me and called me her master. You see my boy, the woman was a genie, or well, a djinni, about which I knew very little._

Jensen scoffed derisively. After his visitation or vision or whatever that was at Jensen’s grave, he had immersed himself in everything he could get his hands on about ghosts and gods and magic and any other way he could think of to bring Jensen back to him including Djinn. All of it was steeped in mysticism and superstition and was usually some kind of morality parable or explanation for some perfectly mundane phenomenon that was inexplicable to ancient man. He had never found anything to indicate the existence of real magic. The closest he came was a supposed psychic he met when he’d first arrived in Vancouver. Before he could even refuse, she had taken his hands with surprising strength and said, “Do not lose hope, that which you lost will be found once more.” Then stumbled into an alley. She hadn’t even demanded payment. He knew that the poor woman was probably just mentally ill, but it stuck with him even years later.

He stared at the pages in his hands and sighed. He’d gone this far down the rabbit hole… might as well see where it ended.

_I know you probably believe these to be the ravings of senile old man,_

Jared snorted.

_but please bear with me for a bit longer. If you take nothing else away from this letter, please, please heed my warning. Contained within the box on the pedestal is the ring that houses Amalia, the djinni._

He eyed the box skeptically. It looked to be a solid block of wood with no seam he could see.

_I know if you are anything like me, you are too curious my half and will open that box regardless of what I say. This next part is the most important bit of winsdom I can give you. Don’t rub the ruby. I know you won’t listen, but I had to try. When you make your first wish, which you will, don’t shake your head like that. Ha! Got you! You just looked behind you, didn’t you?_

Jared had.

Okay, seriously. When you make your first wish, mind your words. Whatever power Amalia possesses is very literal in its interpretation. I don’t think she’s necessarily malicious; I never got that kind of impression from her. Truth be told, I didn’t spend all that much time speaking to her and after my second wish, I banished her to the ring and never summoned her again.

You see Jared, for my first wish, I told her to bring back my Aiden. And she did, literally. Aiden’s desiccated remains appeared on the floor of my living room right in front of me, still very much dead. I thought there would be something else, that he could be miraculously restored but after some minutes, I realized that that was not the case. She had literally brought Aiden to me. You can’t imagine my fury at Amalia. I had never struck a woman before, but I was sorely tempted that day.

After I had calmed down, I figured that maybe it was such a huge request that it would cost two wishes, so I wished for her to bring him back to life. That was when she told me that she could not. When I asked her, begged her, why not, she told me that she was forbidden from calling back the souls of the dead into the mortal world. I can’t tell you the heartbreak I felt at those words. Nearly fifteen years I had spent looking for a way to bring back the love of my life, and now this djinni was telling me it wasn’t possible.

Then, what she said clicked in my mind. She said that SHE was forbidden from calling back the souls of the dead, but she didn’t say that it was impossible. When I asked her to elaborate she confirmed that yes, it was possible for a necromancer of sufficient power to call back the souls of the dead to their body. Of course, like the fool that I was, I wished for such a power without a second thought. Well, suffice to say I brought Aiden back. Into his own desiccated corpse. I’ll save you the horror of hearing all that it entailed and I’m ashamed to admit what bringing him back cost another innocent soul. I can only say in my defense that I was mad with grief and leave it at that. I’m sure I will face judgement for my transgressions soon enough.

Poor Aiden couldn’t live with what I had done, nor could he abide inhabiting his rotting remains. I wasn’t quite so far gone that I found his corpse appealing, but for those few days, I had a part of him back, even if only in spirit. I knew it was selfish to want to keep him with me, even then. I knew what I had done was unforgivable, and worst still, that Aiden was suffering, trapped in the husk of what he once was. So after three days, I said farewell to my love and snuffed out the magic that had kept his soul in this world, allowing him to return to his rest. Then I burned the body to ashes so I would never again be tempted to call him back. I knew myself well enough. I only hope that I will be allowed to see him again soon. I know my time comes. I am one hundred nineteen years old nephew and I am so very tired of being alone.

After I returned to Texas in 1940, I began learning as much as I could about this terrible power that I so callously wished for and discovered that our family comes from a very old line of magicians. I found ways to hone that gift to as high of a degree as I could, though it didn’t ever amount to much more than parlor tricks, and began dabbling in alchemy and other esoteric arts. I never again used the necromantic power Amalia bestowed on me. As for the djinni, I never again summoned her, too afraid to make my third and final wish. I learned years later that a djinn can have no other master so long as they have wishes left or until the current master dies. I used what meager talent I possessed to seal the ring in this box that would only ever open for me. And now for you. This is my final gift to you Jared. Perhaps you will learn from my mistakes and never open the box, but I doubt it.

Please be wiser than this old man and chose your words carefully. I wish you luck my boy

Yours,

Harrison Tristan Kammer

Well, shit.


	2. Chapter 2

Well, shit.

Jared stood in the dark of the attic, trying to wrap his mind around what he had just read. It was lunacy. His Uncle Harrison must have been off his rocker there at the end. The guy _was_ approaching a hundred twenty when he died. But…

“But what if,” he asked the darkness.

What if there was a way to get Jensen back? He had long ago given up any semblance of hope of finding a way. It was the reason he had gotten the degree he had. A professor of Mythology could get away with asking about a lot of strange things that would just sound insane coming from anyone else. Jared had used his position to cultivate all sorts of contacts in museums, research institutions, and even private collections across the globe. He had never found anything to suggest the existence of the supernatural or magical. There were plenty of stories, but they were just that, stories.

Yet here was his uncle, claiming to have been some kind of magician, not to mention a necromancer, and he didn’t know what to believe. He had been eyeing the dark wood box since he finished the letter, afraid to get any closer to it. Afraid that it would turn out to be some prank or the delusions of an old man. But at the same time, afraid that it could be true; that in that box lay the key to having the only thing he’d dreamt of for almost thirty years. Jensen. In his arms again. In his life.

It took him another half hour to work up the courage to even reach out to the small block of wood. And as far as he could tell, that’s all it was. There was no seam or markings of any sort. He would expect a supposed magic box to at least have some kind of carvings or runes or something. But perhaps that was the point. If Harrison feared the ring and the djinni he said was inside it, he would want to make the box as innocuous as possible. Hide it in plain sight as it were.

Taking a deep breath, he slowly reached out his right index finger and carefully set it on the lid and waited. And waited. And waited some more. He blew out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“Gods Dammit!”, he yelled, picking up the stupid piece of wood and pulled his arm back, ready to throw it through window… and dropped it with a shouted, “Fuck!”

He brought his stinging thumb up to his mouth, surprised to taste blood. He might have assumed a splinter, if not for the fact the block had been sanded perfectly smooth. It had felt more like sharp needle had jabbed him, like one of those spring-loaded lancets the nurse had used at his last checkup.

It took him a moment to locate the fallen block with his flashlight. It had flown across the room and came to rest up against one of the tables in the center of the space. When he bent down to check it, he was astonished and not a little freaked out by the changes wrought on the blo… no it was definitely a box now. He could see delicately etched symbols worked into every surface and a silvery latch lay flush with the front face, holding closed the obvious seam. Jared spotted a small dark discoloration on the lid that was quickly fading, almost like it had been wet and was then left out in the sun to dry. _Or to absorb my blood._ He really didn’t like the idea of some magic box (and he couldn’t believe he was even thinking those word) drinking up his blood like a drop of chocolate. He had read enough things to know that blood was a supremely powerful medium for all kinds of magic, good and bad. You know, presupposing magic was real. Jared was having a much harder time discounting assumption that by the second.

Once the dark spot on the lid vanished completely, Jared heard a soft click, and the latch popped out, presumably unlocking the thing.

“Well,” he whispered, reaching out a shaky hand to the box, “may as well look inside the little box of doom. It worked out so well for the guy in hellraiser.”

With just the tip of his fingers, Jared slowly lifted the lid. Lying on the felt lined interior, was the ring described in the letter. Harrison was right about it’s uniqueness. He was positive he’d never heard of a metal like that.

“Well, shit.”

Jared felt his ass hit the cold floor as he just stared at the tiny thing. That something so seemingly insignificant could hold something so powerful. It boggled. Taking a fortifying breath, he reached out and picked up the ring, making sure not to touch the ruby. He still wasn’t sure he bought everything that Harrison wrote in the letter, but so far, he was batting a thousand. Better to be safe than disemboweled by chains from hell. If he was going to do this, he wanted to be someplace else. This room wasn’t conducive to his sanity.

With only two fingers clutching the back of the silvery band, Jared stood up, using the table as leverage and made his way back down the stairs to the second-floor hallway. Before he shut the door, he checked it over for anything unusual, finding small symbols carved into the inside of the frame and door. Making sure the door was sealed this time, he followed the miniscule night lights down the grand staircase and headed straight for the den and the wet bar he had spied earlier. He wasn’t one to imbibe very often, he was a bit of a light weight, but if ever there came a time that called for a bit of liquid fortification, this was most definitely it.

Pouring a couple fingers of some expensive looking Irish whiskey, he shot it back, then poured another. Taking his drink back to the sofa he’d slept on that afternoon, he set it down on the coffee table then placed the ring down beside it. He gazed at the ruby, light refracting off it from the overhead light, then at the drink. He could already feel a bit of a buzz, so he decided to hold off on the drink. For the moment, at least.

Jared picked up the ring, said a prayer to Hecate, Greek goddess of magic, and rubbed the ruby, then looked around. The den was still empty. He blew out a breath and let out a little laugh. Of course it was all…

“Greetings Master,” said a woman’s accented voice. From directly behind him. Jared would later deny that he screamed like a twelve-year-old girl at a boy band concert. What he did do was jump clear across the table in front of him, knocking the glass off and spilling what was probably very expensive whiskey all over the probably also very expensive rug.

On the other side of the coffee table, he snuck a peek over the back of the sofa and then back down again. There was a woman, clearly of mid-eastern or maybe Indian descent, standing in the arched opening to the hallway.

“Master?”, the woman called, taking a few steps closer and peering at Jared with confused eyes, “are you well, master?

“Please stop calling me master,” was the only thing Jared could think to say. Because this was really happening. There was a _FREAKING GENIE_ in his house. Standing on the other side of the sofa. And looking at him like he was the insane one. Clasping his hands together to stop them from trembling, he decided that he really should have had that second drink.

“As you command mas… eh,” she looked a bit like a confused puppy, with a little head tilt and a crease between her dark brows. “What would you prefer me to call you?

Okay… he could do this. He stood up and took her in. She had flawless dusky skin redolent of women from middle eastern countries. Her black hair was pulled back behind her back, but couldn’t tell how long it was. And her large almond shaped eyes were dark and expressive. She was wearing a red embroidered floor length dress, that while modest, didn’t really leave much to the imagination. Okay he was going to say it. She looked like Princess Jasmine. The cartoon character, not the one played by Naomi Scott.

He must have taken longer than he thought to answer because she cleared her throat, obviously waiting for his new form of address.

“Jared,” he coughed out, a little louder than he’d intended. He tried again, “You can call me Jared. It’s my name.”

He reached a hand back to make sure the other sofa was still behind him, it was, and promptly sat down. He pointed to the couch across from him and gestured at it, “please sit. You’re Amaria right?”

“Amalia, yes, and thank you.” She corrected, walking around the end of the couch and taking the seat across from him.

“Amalia,” he repeated. He still didn’t feel like he was firing on all cylinders just yet. He remembered what his uncle’s letter had warned. _Chose your words carefully._ He really needed to be on his A-game if he didn’t want to end up a toad or worse, destroy any chance he had at getting Jensen back. “Can you give me just a minute, I’ll be right back.”

He didn’t wait for her to respond, just stood back up, and staying as far from her as he could, left the room and ran to the nearest washroom. He locked the door behind him and splashed cold water on his face. Staring into his eyes, he said, “You can do this Jared. You’re a reasonably intelligent guy, fairly well read. If there’s a way to make this go the way you want, what do you need?”

It was an excellent question. The problem was, he had no idea. He sat on the closed toilet and ran his hand through his hair. He’d always kept it fairly long because Jensen had always…, “not the time.”

“Okay. What do you know.”, he thought back to Harrison’s letter. His uncle pretty much just wished for the first thing that popped into his head. That was his second mistake. The first was assuming he knew how it all worked. Jared had spent his entire career studying myths and legends from all around the world. Every story that ended badly was usually because the hero, or sometimes villain, made assumptions about things he didn’t really understand, or thought he understood but really didn’t.

“So, what I need is information. Luckily, there’s a five foot something tall genie sitting in my den. Just have to be careful what I say.”

With at least some kind of plan in place, Jared’s heart calmed. He flushed the toilet, because that’s what you do when you spend ten minutes just sitting in the bathroom freaking out, and slowly retraced his steps back to the den. He half expected her to be gone, just a hallucination. Nope. She was still sitting on the couch where he’d left her.

She turned to him as he entered and he gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile, although he was probably showing way too many teeth for that. He retook his seat across from Amalia and opened his mouth. Then closed it. He tried again. Still nothing. What the hell was wrong with him?

Amalia cleared her throat again. When it was clear she had Jared’s attention she said, “If I may… Jared.” He nodded for her to continue. “I’m assuming you know what I am?”, another nod.

“Excellent. I believe the difficulty you are having is that you are not sure what would be construed as a wish and what would not?”, Jared snapped his fingers and pointed at her, smiling, probably stupidly, again. “I will assume that to be a yes. That is easy enough to remedy. If you want to make a with, simply preface it with the words _I wish._ ”

Jared smacked his forehead, feeling like such a dumbass. “Right. Sorry. You see, I got this letter from my uncle Harrison, and…,” he stopped when he saw her frown. “Is everything alright?”

“You speak of Harrison Kammer?”, she asked, showing the first bit of real emotion.

“Yes?” she jumped to her feet, made a sound like an enraged alley cat, and started pacing back and forth in front of the sofa.

“If that man were not already dead, I would have strangled him for what he did to me!”, she paused and pierced Jared with her gaze, “do you have any idea what it is like to be stuck, all alone, with nothing to do in that dark box for over eighty…five…years?”

Jared opened his mouth to respond but she didn’t give him a chance, she just started pacing like a caged animal again. He was a little afraid she would take her ire at Harrison out on him.

“No! Of course you do not. If I were not immortal with the ability to sleep for years at a time, I would have gone mad!”

“I’m sorry,” what else could he say.

She seemed to deflate at his words and fell back onto the sofa. “No, I apologize. You are at no fault for what happened with my former master. If the blood of the magi did not flow through his veins, however diluted, he would have died long ago, and I would have gone back to my timeless slumber.”

Jared thought about what she had revealed and thought he understood, “You were aware the whole time because he still had a wish left, right?” Amalia nodded in confirmation. “And if he had used his final wish, you would have gone into some kind of… stasis?”

She thought for a moment and then said, “Stasis. Yes, that is close enough. I am not aware of the passage of time between masters. Years or centuries may pass before the next person calls me from the ring. I am never quite certain when or where I will awaken.” She looked around the room as though noticing it for the first time, “Speaking of which, where exactly are we? I don’t recognize this place, and I have been in… stasis, since Harrison’s death, so I do not know how much time might have passed since then.”

“That’s easy enough. Uncle Harrison died just about two months ago. This was his house, though he left it to me, so I guess it’s mine now, and we’re a little north of Port Mansfield, Texas.” She just stared at him blankly, “in the US? America?” That got a reaction.

“Ah, the colonies,” she nodded in understanding. “One of my former masters wished to come here. He was a bit of an idiot truthfully. He wished for gold, so unoriginal. Then he wished his pox to cured. I was not really sure what a pox was, but I assumed it to be some sort of illness. He seemed satisfied enough when he peeked into his trousers.” Jared grimaced, “and finally he wished for me to send him to an empty plot of land in the new colonies. I have no idea where he ended up, but with wishes that open ended, it very rarely ends well.”

Now they were getting somewhere. Jared coughed softly and said, “So, um. Could you explain how the whole wishing thing works? Unless that’s against the rules?” He really hoped it wasn’t. She seemed downright chatty. Being stuck in the ring for so long, she’s probably starved for company.

“Yes of course. Hmm, let me think.”, she tapped her bottom lip in thought. “It has been such a long time since someone has asked this, I am a little rusty.” She gave a little laugh, “Rusty, such a strange usage of the word, yet apt. Your language has so many interesting turns of phrase.”

“What do you mean? To me it sounds like you speak it perfectly.”

“I suppose we can start there. You see, the magic of the ring allows me to speak whatever language a new master speaks. It would be exceedingly troublesome if I could not understand what you were saying.”

“Makes sense. It must be cool to learn all those languages though. I’ve had to learn a few for my work, and just that was a pain. I’m not naturally gifted with them, not like… well, anyway. I just think it would be neat.”

“That is an immensely popular wish actually. The ability to speak any language.”, she said, looking questioningly at Jared.

“Uh, no thanks.”

She just shrugged. “Where was I? Oh, right. There are a few very specific wishes I cannot grant. The first being, I can not call back the souls of the dead to the mortal plane.”, she said, giving Jared a pointed look.

“Yeah, I got that from Harrison’s letter.”

“Great,” she smiled, “Second, I can not make someone fall in love with you. That infringes of the free will of others and is a big no no.” The more she spoke, the more she sounded like a native American. It was so strange, yet fascinating.

“I can not kill anyone for you. You have no idea how many of my former masters have wished for me to kill their wives or their fathers or the king of a rival nation. One man wished for me to kill his neighbor so that he could take his wife for himself. It is probably the single most asked for wish. You humans are a very violent lot.” He silently agreed with her.

“Apart from these few exceptions, I can grant you anything your heart desires. Anything at all.”

“You’re that powerful?”, Amalia shrugged noncommittally. Jared was astounded. Of course, the only thing he really wanted was off the table, at least for the moment, but there were so many things he could think of that were, supposedly in her power to give him. He could wish for a starship capable interstellar, faster than light travel. Would she even know what a starship was? Or the speed of light? Or computers or any of the other scientific and technological marvels invented or dreamed up in the last century. She had let him think over the possibilities in silence so far, but he was curious now, “Um, Amalia?”

“Yes, Jared?”

“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but how would you grant a wish for something that you didn’t understand.”

She cocked her head, clearly not taking his meaning. He pulled out his iPhone from where he’d stuck it in his sleep pants pocket and showed it to her. “Take this for instance.”, he unlocked it for her and passed it over. “That’s a phone… a communication device.”

He watched as she examined his cell, quickly taping on the screen and opening a number of apps. She spent a few minutes playing, or maybe she was learning, with the phone before raising her eyes to meet his, “This is marvelous! Can you teach me how to use it?” well, that answered that question. She was apparently not omniscient.

“Um, sure, in a minute.”, he really needed to know how her powers worked. “If I wished for a phone like that, not that I am”, we waited for her smile of understanding, “but if I did, would you be able to do it?”

“Of course, why would I not? Duplicating something that already exists is so much simpler than making something that never existed”, she explained, leaving him flabbergasted. _Something that never_ _existed_? That raised so many more questions. He shook his head, _stay on topic._

“Okay, but what about if I asked for say… a quantum computer. Something that is theoretically feasible, but not yet real. Would you need to learn quantum mechanics and electronics engineering to figure out how to build one? Or do you just wave you have and say abracadabra and poof, quantum computer?”

She stared at him like he’d grown a second head. “Of course not.”, she said slowly, as though speaking to a child. “The ability to grant wishes is not an inherent trait in Djinn.”, that certainly surprised him. Everything he had ever read suggested that granting wishes was what Djinn did. “The ritual used to enslave me many millennia ago tied me to a force much greater than myself, giving me that power.”

“What do you mean? Where does it come from?”, he was finally getting somewhere. And it seemed that the lore about Djinn being slaves held true as well.

“I am not exactly sure,” and back at square one, “My original masters never bothered explaining anything to me, and when one of their wishes caused their entire island to sink beneath the waves, all of their knowledge died with them.”

She couldn’t mean…, “Are you talking about the fabled city of Atlantis?” _and you caused it to sink?_ He added silently.

She just nodded as if it were common knowledge and continued, “One of my former masters theorized that the power itself comes from the will of the universe. He postulated that that would be the only source great enough to make something where before nothing existed, discounting the gods of course. They have nothing to do with my power to grant wishes. I have fulfilled more than one god’s wish in the past. Though that was a very long time ago, as mortals judge these things,” she had a far away look in her eyes for a moment, “He was one of my favorites. Merlin was such a kind man.”

And… okay… she went there. They were both lost in their thoughts for a while, Amalia presumably thinking about her past, while Jared was just thunderstruck. Would every myth and legend he’d ever read about turn out to be real? At last he shook himself from his introspection.

“Okay…”, he drawled, pulling her from her musings, “Not that I’m not intrigued and a little bit terrified that there are actual gods out there, plus ya know… Atlantis and Merlin being real, but can we go back to my question?”, at her indulgent nod he gathered his wits and asked, “Alright say if I wished for a starship capable of faster than light travel, you would be able to grant such a wish?”

She actually rolled her eyes and huffed a put-upon sigh, “Yes Jared. Even though I have no idea what a… starship is, though I could make a guess, I could grant your wish. Although…,” here it comes, “In the past, I have found that the more I understand something, the better the wish usually turns out. It also helps to be _very_ specific when you make the wish.”

“Okay that makes sense.”, and it did. If he was understanding her correctly, she was more of medium for the _universe_ or whatever to channel its power into wishes. He’s seen both versions of Aladdin, and also that terrible nineties movie Wishmaster. Specificity is key. Also, don’t make wishes from an evil demonic creature. Seriously.

Amalia had gone back to messing with Jared’s phone, so he sat back and thought. He was kind of amazed at how well he was taking all this. It wasn’t every day you came face to face with a many thousands year old mythical being. Then again, he had spent his entire adult life studying and researching things of this nature, even if they were just fiction before tonight.

Getting back to the matter at hand, mainly getting Jensen back without resorting to his uncle’s methods. He shuddered. Just imaging doing that to Jensen made him want to lose what little he had in his stomach. He needed to make sure whatever he ended up wishing for was in her wheelhouse of knowledge. He didn’t think that would be a problem, seeing as a quantum computer or starship wouldn’t really help him all that much. Still, it would be neat to have.

His jaw cracked with a yawn, the adrenaline crash finally catching up with him, not to mention everything else that had happened that night. He peered out the huge window to his right and saw the sky was beginning to lighten on the horizon. What he needed was sleep. He was liable make a stupid mistake he could ill afford, otherwise. He had the means to get Jensen back, hopefully, if he could work out how to make it happen. He bent down and scooped the ring off the rug where it had fallen in his _manly retreat_ and stood up, stretching.

“Amalia, I think I’m going to get some sleep,” he said, only then noticing her gaze on the ring in his hand, her body tense. _She’s probably afraid I’m going to make her go back in._ “Feel free to use one of the other nine bedrooms upstairs.”

Amalia’s shoulders relaxed, smile returning, and just nodded, “I do not sleep, not out of the ring, but thank you. Is it alright if I continue to use this?” she held up his phone. Apparently, she had discovered YouTube.

“Sure, knock yourself out. Make yourself at home.”, While she didn’t strike him as mean spirited, it couldn’t hurt to stay on her good side. Before he crossed into the hallway an idea struck him. He was taking a lot on faith, that she really was what she said she was. He hadn’t seen her do anything overtly magical after all. Hell, even her sudden appearance had been behind his back. She could have been hiding in the house all this time, and just stepped into the room when he touched the ring. He needed to be sure. He didn’t know if he could take it if this was all just some elaborate hoax…

“Um, Amalia?”, he waited for her to acknowledge him, “without using one of my wishes, would it be possible for you to maybe… prove you are what you say? It’s not that I don’t believe you…”, he rushed to finish.

She smirked at him. Smirked, “I was wondering when you would ask. Usually that is the first thing my new masters ask. Especially in the last few centuries with the resurgence of science and increasing skepticism in the magical.”

She set the iPhone down on the coffee table and stood up, arms above her head. From one moment to the next she had gained about two feet in height and small black rams’ horns sprouted from her temples. Her skin had turned a light pink with runes and whorls adorning her visible flesh, and her hair was flaming red. Literally. It was on fire. She was also wearing a lot less clothing. The naughty bits were covered, but not much else was. The eyes were the worst. They shone like molten pools of magma.

“Does that meet your satisfaction, Jared?”, she asked, her voice having gone down an octave to a husky timbre. It only lasted a few moments, then she reverted to her human appearance.

Jared quickly did an impression of a dashboard bobblehead, quite proud of not having pissed himself. “Yeah, that’s good. Thanks,” and fled the room to the sound of Amalia’s tinkling laughter.


	3. Chapter 3

Jared felt better prepared to handle the craziness that had become his life the next afternoon after having slept for a solid eight hours, followed by a long hot soak in the swimming pool his uncle had called a tub. He didn’t see Amalia as he walked past the den on the way to the kitchen, and of not for the ruby ring situated on his right middle finger, he might have chalked up everything that happened last night as a dream.

The kitchen remained Djinn-free as Jared made himself a south western omelet, and by the time all the dishes were washed and put away, he was beginning to imagine all manner of mischief a Djinn that had spent the better part of a century cooped up could get up to on her own. He had searched half the bottom floor before he found her in the library at one of the tables, surrounded by open books, while she tapped away on Jared’s iPhone.

She didn’t appear to have noticed him as he neared, engrossed in whatever she was doing. He looked over the open books in front of her and saw that they were on a plethora of subjects, from recent history to engineering manuals to political and theological treatises. _She must be trying to catch up on what she’s missed in the last couple of centuries._

He wasn’t want to find out how a Djinn would react if startled, so he softly cleared his throat and said, “Good afternoon Amalia.” She didn’t seem surprised at all to see him standing just a few feet away, so he figured she had detected him long before he got close.

“Greetings Jared. You are looking a bit less… frazzled… this than last night,” she said, smiling warmly up at him from her seat. “My, I do enjoy this English.”

“Yes, the sleep helped immensely,” he gestured to the chair across from her, sitting at affirmative nod.

“How are you enjoying the modern world?”, he asked, indicating the phone and books.

“I discovered the internet late this morning and have been reading the most extraordinary things from all around the world,” she exclaimed. “It’s truly amazing what humanity has accomplished in the last century, all without the aid of magic.”

“Most people don’t really believe in magic, at least not outside of fantasy fiction.”

“Yes, so I have seen,” she said, setting the iPhone down on the table. “It seems that the capability to harness the mana of this plane and others has all but died out in the human race. Magic has been reduced to the fantastical and a handful of pseudo-religious and spiritual practices with no real power.”

Moment of truth… “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” she sat up straight in her chair, as though ready to hear his wish. He wasn’t quite to that point just yet, but he had spent hours lying in bed after waking and then in the tub trying to work through his problem.

The way Jared figured it was, if he wanted Jensen back, there were only two choices. The first was to bring him back the way his uncle did with Aiden. Jared was sure he could figure out a way to restore his body first, but what then. Jensen would still be the same sixteen-year-old boy he’d been when he died, and Jared was decidedly not sixteen anymore. Even if Jensen could look past the age difference or if Jared wished to be young again, it would not be fair to him. Not only would Jensen have the memory of his father killing him, but there was the fact that Jared was supremely broken in some ways. Sure, he had healed as best as he could considering, but he still held the scars of that day, not only physically, but emotionally. Jared had only tried dating anyone twice years after, both times making him feel like he was betraying Jensen, even knowing that he would want Jared to move on. After the second time, he made peace with being alone for the rest of his life.

Jared knew he had turned his love for Jensen into an addiction of sorts. He had seen a number of therapists over the years and they all told him the same thing: That he needed to move on, find love again. Live his life. That was usually when he stopped going to that particular shrink. Jared knew himself well enough not to want to taint the love they had shared with his issues.

Which led to option number two. If he couldn’t bring Jensen to him, Jared would just have to go to him. He had looked at the issue from as many angles as he could come up with, given the short amount of time he’d had to think on it and had come with the beginnings of a plan.

“Tell me, what can you tell me about magic? Specifically, temporal magic.”, he asked the Djinn.

She seemed surprised for a moment, then frowned. “Can I ask why you want to know?”

Jared didn’t see any harm in it, so he told her about Jensen. About how they met in the third grade. Of course, then he’d had to explain about the American educational system. He talked about their six years of spending more time together than apart as best friends. Hanging out, playing sports together, camping in Jared’s back yard, just the two of them under the stars. He told her about the first time Jensen had kissed him when they were fourteen. How scared he’d looked when he pulled away, then the startled yelp Jensen had made when Jared tackled him and returned the kiss, because yes, that explained so damn much about the dreams Jared had been having about Jensen for the last few years.

Finally, he told her about that night. Not in detail of course, but about what Jensen’s father had done to them, and how he had never gotten over that profound loss and hatred for Jensen’s father and to lesser extent to his mother for not doing anything to stop it. About all the fruitless years he’d spent searching for a year to return his love and about what he’d read in Harrison’s letter.

When he finished the recitation of his life’s story, he looked up at Amalia for the first time in what seemed like hours, only to see tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Oh Jared. I’m so sorry, but I don’t think temporal magic will help you,” she said, whipping her eyes with a silk handkerchief she had pilled out of… _somewhere._ “I could send you back to the past, or even make you powerful enough to do it on your own, but the laws of the universe would not permit you to stay there. The same soul cannot co-exist with itself in the same time. The Atlanteans learned this when a cadre of nearly one hundred sent one of their number back to a previous point in his life. Through powerful scrying spells, they observed him arrive, though they themselves had no recollection of the event in their own pasts.

“They theorized that the instant Anthian arrived in his own past, the timestream split into a new branch, unable to affect the original timeline. As they observed him over the course of three days, they watched as he began to deteriorate, until there was naught but dust remaining. It took the scholars of Atlantis many years to determine the cause. So, you see Jared, even if I granted you the magical power to cross into the pass by yourself, you would not last more than a couple of weeks before succumbing. Even I cannot change this immutable law. You, as the foreign soul, would fade until there was nothing left.”

Jared just smiled, confusing the Djinn. “That’s perfect. I had no intention of living past seeing to Jensen’s safety,” he confessed.

Amalia a nod of understanding, sighing sadly in obvious resignation. “Very well. What is your wish?”

“I’m not quite ready for wishes just yet. Give me a few days to work a few things out,” he told her, “I’ll need my phone back for a little while, but I’ll get you my laptop for you, that way you can keep doing what you were doing before I interrupted. ”

“Of course, and yes, that would be wonderful. Thank you,” she handed the iPhone to Jared as he stood, walking out of the library and towards the front door, leaving the Djinn to her books for a few minutes. He had been touched by her reaction to his tale. It helped to reassure him that he was doing the right thing.

Retrieving his laptop case from his SUV, he set it up for Amalia in the library, then made his way to the office on the second floor. Fortunately for Jared, despite his anti-social tendencies, Harrison had been a bit of a technophile, buying all the latest and greatest gadgets available. That included a top of the line Mac Pro and Wi-Fi connected to a fiber optic line throughout the house.

Jared spent the rest of the afternoon researching and fleshing out his plans. Then in the early evening he made the call.

“Hello?”, his new lawyer answered on the third ring.

“Hi, Charlotte. Its Jared Padalecki. I know it’s a bit late, but I really need your help with something.”

“Hi Jared,” Jared could hear typing in the background, “I have a deposition scheduled for the morning, so I’m actually still at the office. What can I do for you?”

“Alright, I need you to bear with me for a bit, as this will probably sound insane.”

“Okay…,” she sounded worried now, “is it about the house, because like I told you Mister Kammer’s collection was…”

“No, no. Nothing like that,” Jared interrupted.

“Alright, lay it on me,” she said, sounding more confidant, “I’m sure whatever it is, I’ve heard worse.”

Jared inhaled sharply, then said, “I need you to help me liquidate all my accounts and stocks, everything but what’s in the house, and convert into precious metals and gems.”

Silence.

“Charlotte?”, he waited a minute then called again, “Charlotte, are you still there?”

Finally, she replied. “Can you run that by me again please, because it sounded like you said you want to empty your bank accounts and investment portfolio, an amount in excess of three hundred million US… and buy gold.”

“Not just gold,” he corrected. “Platinum, palladium, and silver would be fine as well. Gemstones will work too: Diamonds, sapphires, rubies, etcetera.”

“Jared, I don’t think you understand the enormity of what your proposing. May I ask why you need this?”, Jared could hear her

“Well, let’s just say I’m going on a trip, and I plan to take as much as I can with me.”, he said, one corner of his mouth lifting in a smirk she couldn’t see.

“Jared, just from a preliminary search, I can tell you that we’re talking about several tons in gold alone. I’m not even sure that’s feasible, and even if it was it would take…”

“I need it done in two weeks,” he interrupted. He knew what he was asking would be very difficult, so he gave her a little extra incentive, “If you can convert at least 80% of my new found wealth into precious resources in two weeks or less, then I’ll sign over the rest over to you personally.”

He waited for a minute. And another, a third, then, “I’ll make this my only priority starting tonight,” she spoke quickly, “I’ll call you in a few days to give you an update. One thing though, where will you be keeping all this _hard currency?_ ”

“Great! And you can have it delivered here to the house.”

“…Of course. I’ll talk to you in a few days.”

“Thanks, Charlotte.”, he said, disconnecting the call.

Jared sat back in the ergonomic desk chair and stretched, then went to check on Amalia. He still had some questions for her regarding magic and what it could do. He had so much to do to prepare, but he’d gotten the ball rolling. “No turning back now,” he muttered as we walked down the hall. _Not that it was ever a question._

**~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~**

Jared was busy over the next two weeks. First, he arranged for a moving firm to pack up his Vancouver house and ship the contents to the house in Texas. He didn’t bother trying to sell the house. It would have taken too long and the miniscule amount it would have netted him would have been a drop in the bucket, so he paid off the mortgage and donated it to a gay youth charity run by his friend Andrew de Long. He figured they could use it, or just sell it and keep the proceeds.

With that out of the way, he split the remainder of his time coordinating shipments with Charlotte, getting to know Amalia, and learning she could teach him about magic. She was quite knowledgeable on the subject. Having spent nearly three millennia as the slave of the preeminent mages of Atlantis, she had nothing but time. Apparently, they’d encouraged her to learn all she could. According to Amalia, the Atlantean mages that summoned her from her home, what she called the elemental plane of fire, and bound her to the ring had not viewed her capture as slavery, but as a form of enlightenment. Raising her up from her uncivilized, uncultured meaningless existence to one of great intellectual and philosophical perfection. That included their magical prowess, which she admitted was unrivaled by any that came after the demise of their civilization. Of course, it didn’t stop them from making use of her powers when it suited them. Basically, they were elitist pricks.

From the Atlanteans and later, other former masters, many of whom were magicians themselves, she learned a great deal. Amalia explained that what most called magic was the means by which certain beings manipulate a type of energy called mana. Mana could be found in everything, not only was it in the air, but in plants and animals. Even dirt and rocks held trace amounts. The more complex something was, the more mana could be found in that thing. By far, the most abundant source of mana flowed in great rivers under the surface of the planet. She called these something Jared couldn’t hope to pronounce. He told her that in fantasy fiction they were called ley lines, or sometimes telluric currents, so agreed to stick to those terms for expediency.

Unfortunately, only a small percentage of living beings were ever born with the ability to even sense let alone manipulate and shape mana. It was true even among the Atlanteans, the most prolific of all known human magicians. Only about 10% of their population had even the smallest amount of talent for the magical arts, and among that group, only about 2% could ever call themselves true mages.

With the dwindling magical bloodlines, it was no wonder that no one even knew that this mana was raging right under their feet. Jared had been concerned that pollution or drilling and mining had somehow damaged or even destroyed the ley lines that were responsible for cycling and circulating all the mana on earth. Amelia just laughed at him, saying it was nearly impossible to disrupt them, and those few times it had been accomplished in history only resulted in cataclysmic forces destroying everything around the disruption. She assured him that the ley lines ran stronger that they had in ancient times, most likely due to the steady disappearance of people capable of drawing from them.

Jared spent an entire day just asking questions on what magic could to. The answer was, apparently everything. She described magic to command the elements (fire, earth, air, and water), from lighting a fireplace and hurling bolts of lightning to controlling the weather and causing earthquakes. There was magic that could heal any illness, mend flesh or fix broken bones, even regrow lost limbs. He already knew about necromancy from Harrison. Some mages could change their appearance or even shape-shift into animals. Then there were those few very powerful mages that could bend the laws of reality and teleport or open portals to faraway lands, some of which weren’t even on earth. There were apparently planes of existence other the mortal plane that encompassed the earth and beyond, like Amalia’s home, the elemental plane of fire. And of course, Amalia had already confirmed temporal magic for him.

He made notes of everything she told him, including identifying the metal used in the band of her ring prison, saying it was an alloy invented by the Atlanteans called Eternium, comprised of something called Arcanium and mithril. Mithril! Neither of which could be found on earth. Atlantis had been quite the trading hub, receiving visitors and merchants from several adjacent realms that were home to other sentient species, such as dwarves and elves. The fall of Atlantis destroyed the gateways to these other realms and as far as Amalia knew, they had never been reestablished. Still, every once in a while, an individual or group would slip through a crack onto earth, hence their prominence in folktales and legends.

He learned a lot about Amalia as well. She had been relatively young for one of her race when she had been summoned and enslaved. It was the reason the mages were even able to complete their ritual. Even still, she managed to kill a number of them before the binding was complete. Then she spent the next twenty-eight centuries serving one Atlantean generation after the other. Surprisingly, none of her Atlantean masters ever wished for immortality, which she had found odd at the time. It was evidently a cultural thing.

Her last Atlantean master, a bitter young man by the name of Rivius, had been spurned by a lover when she left him for a wealthy older man. Unfortunately, Rivius made the throw-away comment about wishing for death everyone around his ex-lover in Amalia’s hearing. The saying ‘Be careful what you wish for’ had never been truer when a massive volcanic eruption exploded beneath the home of the woman’s new lover, taking them and the rest of the highly advanced civilization to the bottom of the Mediterranean.

Amalia wasn’t sure how long she remained in stasis after the death of her last master, or how the ring ended up somewhere in ancient Italy, but her best guess was somewhere in the ballpark of fifty to seventy thousand years having passed since the destruction of Atlantis. By the time she was summoned into the world one more magic had all but been forgotten except by a ridiculously small minority. More often than not, she found herself in the hands of those with at least some small measure of talent in their blood, whether it be active or otherwise. She had a theory that the ring sought out those of Atlantean descent, no matter how diluted by the millennia.

After that its was one master after another. Some like Merlin were kind to her, allowing her to remain out of the ring while they had wishes remaining. Many others only wanted what she could give them and nothing more. A number had the misfortune of assuming that being Amalia’s master meant they could take other things. They soon discovered how wrong they were. Apparently, things like rape and murder had been anathema to the people of Atlantis, and they made sure to make provision in the binding spell to allow Amalia to defend herself if such a circumstance ever arose. Even if she could only channel the power of the universe for the benefit of others, she was still a creature of magic, and quite the formidable sorceress in her own right after everything she had learned in her long life.

Jared came to quite like Amalia. She spent much of her time on one of the computers in the house researching any manner of subjects or outside, enjoying the Texas hear. She said it reminded her of her home. He once found her by the shore with such a forlorn expression on her face, he couldn’t bring himself to disturb her and just walked back to the house. What must it have been like for her, torn away from the only home she had ever known only to be enslaved in a world she didn’t understand, forced to serve the petty whims of others for century after century? Jared wasn’t at all shocked that, as far as Amalia knew, she was the only Djinn ever to be imprisoned the way she was. He had suspected as much when she told him of her capture. That meant that all the stories and myths about Djinn were essentially about Amalia.

He knew it made him a hypocrite, as he had every intention of making use of her talents for his own ends, but hopefully when he was done, she would forgive him.

The room next to wine cellar in the basement had become like a veritable Fort Knox. For a while he was afraid that some of the delivery people would decide to come back to the isolated manor to steal rob him. After voicing his concerns to Amalia, she had placed a simple ward around the door the workmen always used that would make them forget anything they knew about the contents of the cases they carried. Either it worked or none of the men ever decided to try stealing from him. All that mattered was that one day before the deadline Jared had given to Charlotte, she showed up at the house with the latest shipment of rare metals and precious jewels.

Apparently that last shipment had been exactly 83.4% of this now severely diminished accounts, somewhere in the neighborhood of two-hundred seventy-seven million US dollars. Charlotte informed him that she was having a difficult time locating more sellers willing to part with any of their resources at a reasonable price. It seems that word had gotten out that someone was buying an unprecedented amount of precious resources and it caused a bit of a feeding frenzy, artificially inflating prices. No one sure of the reason but were afraid he knew something they didn’t.

In the end, Jared ended up with just over two and a half tons of gold, platinum, and palladium, as well as about half a ton of silver. Not to mention the hundreds of precious gems. He praised Charlotte for all her hard work and gladly signed over the rest of his accounts, a very respectable fifty-five million. She had certainly earned it, though Jared was sure she thought he was insane.

When all of Jared’s preparations, at least those he could thing of, were ready, he asked Amalia if she would like to take a trip with him.

She seemed excited, probably tired of being stuck in the house. “Of course, where are we going?”

Jared gave her a sad smile, “to visit Jensen and my parents.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so i may have taken a bit on inspiration from Chronicles of Amberdrake for this next part, but only a bit. Enjoy

The journey from the manor to the cemetery where Jared’s family was interred took about four hours. Amalia sat shotgun and spent the whole trip playing with the radio or gaping at the unfamiliar world outside, especially when they got to San Antonio. She said the tall buildings reminded her of Atlantis some, though Atlantean architecture leaned more to artistic designs than the practical boxy buildings that made up the majority of the skyline.

Jared pulled into the cemetery in the early evening, then sat staring out the windshield at the rows and rows of tombstones. He could just make out the tree he’d had planted over his parent’s graves. He had managed to have them buried only two rows away from Jensen, and he sometimes he liked to imagine they kept him company, as they had always treated him like a second son. He clenched his fists on the steering wheel in an attempt to stop the trembling. Amalia placed her left hand over his right and squeezed gently. He turned to face her; having forgotten she was even in the car. She had become his friend after the last two weeks and he was glad for her presence for this final visit. He shot her a quick smile, opened the door, and got out. Amalia met him at the front of the SUV and together they walked silently towards an end, and hopefully a new beginning.

They stopped at his parent’s graves first, quickly finding the headstone he had picked for them. It was his first time actually seeing it in person, as he hadn’t been back since the funeral. It was a simple granite affair, for the simple down to earth people his parents had been, with their names and dates, followed by Together Forever. Amalia stayed at a respectful distance as he knelt down and placed the bouquet of white lilies, his mother’s favorites, on top of the headstone, then closed his eyes.

“Hey mom, Dad. I know its been a long time since I was last here, but I hope you can understand why I never visited. I’m about to do something that you might not approve of, but if it lets me stop what happened to you and Jensen, I’ll gladly pay any price. I know that it wont be you I’m saving, not really, but it will be a version of you, and I think that’s enough for me. I just wanted to say goodbye and thank you for being the best parents anyone could hope to have. I love you guys. Take care of each other.”

He stepped back and wiped his eyes. He’d spent so much time missing Jensen that he had neglected his grief at losing his parents when he was away at college. Hopefully they would forgive him. After collecting himself, he walked the two rows to where Jensen lay, Amalia trailing behind like a ghost. Someone had obviously replaced the headstone since the last time he’d seen it. He hadn’t been able to force himself to visit Jensen when he flew in for his parents’ funeral, so he’d never seen the new one.

Jensen’s mom or whoever else had apparently gotten the message because they had changed the epitaph to ‘Gone Too Soon’. Jared agreed wholeheartedly with the choice. He hadn’t brought any flowers for Jensen knowing he would have hated that. Instead, he placed a little matchbox car replica of a ’67 Impala on the grass against the granite. Jensen had told him a thousand times growing up that it was the coolest car out there. Jared had just humored him and listened to him talk about how he would tweak the engine and how his could be midnight black and polished to a mirror finish, just loving the sound of his voice, no matter what he was saying.

With his heart in his throat and tears streaming down his cheeks, he sat with his back to the headstone and just talked. He told Jensen about his life, how he’d tried to keep his promise to live, even if he would have preferred otherwise. He talked about his college years and his first internship and knocking his boss out when he’d tried to coerce Jared into sleeping with him.

“You would have laughed your ass off, then kicked him in the nuts for good measure.”

He told Jensen about some of his favorite students and his first trip to Europe. How every time he came across some new famous monument or beautiful piece of art or architecture, he would turn to point it out to Jensen, only to find himself alone. About searching for some way to reunite with him, and still keep his promise. It was full dark by the time his voice gave out. Amalia had sat down next to him at some point, taking his hand in hers. He introduced her as his friend, earning a pleased smile, and then he told Jensen all about his crazy uncle Harrison who turned out not to be so crazy after all and about Amalia and the insane two weeks he’d spent preparing for something that could still turn bad if he didn’t get it perfect.

“I know I promised you I would live babe, and I’ve tried. So. Freaking. Hard,” he whispered hoarsely, wiping tears and snot off with the back of his sleeve, “This is the best chance I have to, if not be with you, at least save some version of us from the horror that befell us that day.”

Jared stood and helped Amalia to her feet, then faced Jensen’s headstone, kissed his fingers and pressed it to the top.

“I’ll see you soon love, one way or another.”

**~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~**

They made it back to the manor in the early hours of the morning and Jared went straight to bed, emotionally drained as well as exhausted from driving eight hours in one day and slept till noon. He was too excited and nervous to eat anything so he headed right for the library when he could usually find Amalia. Only she wasn’t there. In fact, she wasn’t anywhere in the house. He finally found her on the on the shore, staring out into the distance. He sidled up next to her and they shared a quiet few minute. Each lost in their own thoughts. Amalia broke the silence with a sigh.

“I will miss this view.”

“There’s no reason you can’t come back here from time to time to enjoy if once I’m gone, though I assume you’ll spend a few centuries getting reacquainted with you home first”, said Jared. He was watching for the moment she caught on and turned her full attention on Jared.

“You can’t possibly mean…”, she asked, voice breaking.

Jared smiled as he turned to face his friend, “I mean… I only need two wished to accomplish what I need to do. It was always my intention to use my third wish to free yo… uhh…”

Amalia practically tackled him in her attempt to squeeze the life out of him and cried silently into his shoulder, Jared rubbing her back.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said, breaking the embrace and turning away to wipe her cheeks, “So many years I dreamed…”

“You don’t have to say anything. It’s the least I can do for my friend.”, he waited a few moments, then said, “Shall we?” and held out the crook of his arm for her. She smiled up at him and took the proffered arm. Together, they walked back to the manor, and hopefully a new beginning for each of them.

**~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~**

Jared sat across from Amalia in the den, unintentionally recreating the first night they met. Jared set the ring on the table between them and asked, “have any last-minute advice?”

“Be concise, with as much detail as you can include. Don’t stop speaking until you have said everything you intend to include. Other than that, remember to preface your words with _I wish_.”

“Okay, that’s what more or less what I thought,” he reached into his front pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, “I wrote down exactly what I’m going to wish for so if I mess it up, I’ll have only myself to blame.”

“That was smart. I can honestly say you are the only person that has ever prepared this much in advance of their wishes. Whenever you’re ready. Take your time and enunciate clearly. You don’t have to speak quickly, but I cannot stress this enough, _do not stop speaking until you are finished._ ”

Jared nodded understanding, then did a few deep breathing exercises. When he felt he was as calm and settled as he was bound to get, he opened his eyes and unfolded the paper. Taking a final deep breath, he muttered, “Here goes nothing…”

“I wish to become the most powerful mage that has ever walked the earth and to know how to perfectly use every type of magic or spell ever envisioned by the denizens of earth and its nearest realms.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Jared saw Amalia stiffen, her eyes widening to show the sclera. She shot up off the sofa and yelled, “What have you done?! Quickly, before it’s too late!” Jared could only gape as Amalia jumped over the coffee table and put his hand on his shoulder, then he knew only pain.

To simply call it pain was to compare a 20w light bulb to the sun. Every cell, blood vessel and bone in his body burned while simultaneously freezing. Every nerve came alive at once, as if he were being struck by thousand bolts of lightning every second. His mind swam with images and ideas and theories, there and gone in a flash only to be replaced by something new. It felt like it lasted an eternity and then kept going. After another eternity, his consciousness finally lost the battle and he blissfully knew no more.

**~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~**

Jared woke slowly. He’d had the worst dream of being tortured by being repeatedly dunked in a vat of acid, only to be flash frozen while being electrocuted. He’d almost prefer to have the dream about losing Jensen again. _Jensen!_ His eyes flew open as everything came back in a rush. The wish. Had it worked? He raised his head. And raised it, and kept raising it, higher and higher. “What the fu..,” What the hell was wrong with his voice. It rumbled deep in his chest like two mountains colliding.

“Oh thank the gods you’re awake,” Amalia’s voice came from directly below him. He lowered his eyes and saw a large gold… something in front of his face. No, that _was_ his face.

“What the fuck did you do to me?”, he nearly roared.

“I granted your wish you idiotic man. If I had known you were going to make that particular wish, I would have warned you.”

Jared lowered his… snout? Muzzle? Whatever it was and finally saw Amalia. She was standing atop a gold scaled arm… and she was tiny. “Did my wish make you shrink?” he was so that was the case.

She had the audacity to laugh at him, “no Jared, I did not shrink. You had a bit of a growth spurt, well, more than a bit” she waved her hand at him and said, “Here, have a look for yourself.”

A large mirrored surface materialized in front of Jared’s face and he could only stare in horror, and maybe a little awe. “You turned me into a FREAKING DRAGON?” If a dragon could hyperventilate, Jared was sure that’s exactly what he would be seeing in the mirror. His large reptilian head was at least the size of his Navigator if not larger. He was covered in scales the color of burnished gold, how’s that for irony. Large horns curved back from the top of his head and the sides of his face sported numerous sharp spikes. And the teeth. He attempted a smile, yeah enough said about that. It was his eyes though that held most of his attention. The pupils were slitted like he’d expect of a reptile, but they were a dark amethyst, shot through with streaks of silver. Frankly, they were stunning. He almost felt like preening… Until he remembered he was a FREAKING DRAGON!

He rose from where he’d been laying, dislodging a disgruntled Amelia, though he took no notice and twisted to one side, then the other. Yep. That was a dragon alright. Four powerful legs above with razor claw tipped feet… paws? No, feet, he had three distinctive finger-like appendages and something like a thumb to the side. He flexed a foot, claws cutting through the frozen earth like softened butter. The rest of his body was layered in golden scale armor that looked strong enough to stand toe to toe with a howitzer and come out on top.

Turning more to the right he followed the long line of his neck to two enormous leathery wings folded over his strong, wide back, which then tapered into a long sinuous tail. He flicked is tail a few times, and how weird was that, then turned back to the wings. _How do I… oh, that easy, huh?_ He spread the wings wide and gave them a few beats, kicking up dirt and loose grass. _Oops._ He shot a toothy grin down at an unamused Amalia, then went back to his inspection. There were wicked looking bony spikes at the joints and the leading edges were sheathed in the same gold scales as the rest of him. They looked impressive, but didn’t seem nearly large enough to provide enough lift for something of his bulk.

As soon as he'd had the thought, the information was just there. He just _knew_ dragons used instinctive magic to completely nullify the pull of gravity on their bodies, then used their wings as any other creature of the sky. That’s what he was now, he realized. He felt it down to his bones. He hadn’t just changed his form; his whole being had been transformed. He was a dragon. Mind, body, soul. The only thing that hadn’t changed was his love for Jensen. If anything, the need to protect him had increased a hundred-fold. Just thinking about what had happened to him caused his chest to rumble. But how could he… Smoke billowing out of his nostrils startled him enough to break his train of thought. “Shit, I can breathe fire.”

“Of course, you can. You are a dragon, Jared. Are you through admiring yourself?”, asked Amalia gently teasing him.

He glanced down from a height of at least twenty-five feet and saw Amalia glaring jokingly up at him, arms crossed over her chest. “Sorry, Amalia,” he said, laying back down to be closer to her level though it still felt like he was talking to her from the roof of a single story building, “It’s just that this isn’t exactly what I wished for even if it is kinda cool.”

“Actually, its exactly what you wished for,” she said, dropping her arms and looking somewhat mollified, “your exact words were: I wish to become the most powerful mage that has ever walked the earth. What you couldn’t have known, because I never thought to add it to your education, is that the most powerful mages to ever walk the earth were all dragons. Eons before man learned to harness the smallest thread of mana, the dragons were masters of the arcane. It just never seemed relevant as they have been gone from the world for over half a million years.”

Jared’s eyes widened comically, “Gone? You mean they all died?”

“Gone, as in they left,” explained Amalia, “When they visited Atlantis, the elves would share stories of the magnificent beasts that benevolently ruled the nine realms. No other race of beings could match their physical prowess or surpass their mastery of the arcane arts, not even the fae. They were without equal. It’s said that even the gods feared to anger the dragons, although never in earshot. Then one day they opened a portal and vanished into it. No one knew why they left or where they went, and as far as I know, they haven’t been seen since.”

“Well, shit.”

“Well, shit indeed,” she agreed.

Jared considered his predicament for a moment before finally taking note of his surroundings. At first, the sound of waves crashing nearby had led him to believe they were in the back yard, but the house was nowhere to be seen. He peered down at the contemplative Djinn and asked, “Um, Amalia, where are we?”

She studied the location as if seeing it for the first time and said, “I believe we are on the Isle of Ewe in Scotland.”

“You what?”, he liked Amalia as a friend but…

“No silly. The Isle. Of. Ewe,” she said the words slowly, “When I realized what was about to happen, I only had a moment to grab you and the ring, then I teleported us to the first deserted place I could think of. One of my former masters brought me here once and the name always stuck with me. I thought you would appreciate not destroying the house with your transformation.”

“Oh, no. Yeah, good call there. Thanks.”, she just nodded, smugly. He was sure if he was still human, his face would be scarlet.

Jared stood up again to take a better look around, unconsciously flaring his wings. They were in the middle of a flat field of short grass with a few trees dotting the landscape in the distance. Jared could see a few sheep grazing nervously a couple hundred yards away. He licked his chops upon spotting them, then pushed the thought away. Dragon he may be, but he wasn’t going to poach some poor shepherd’s herd. The thought never even crossed his mind that eating a few whole sheep was anything out of the ordinary. He’d just have to make sure to burn the wool off first so it wouldn’t get stuck in his teeth.

That thought caused his mind to freeze. How did he even know that? There seemed to be all kind of new information in the back of his mind, just waiting to be recalled the moment he needed it.

“The second part of my wish…”, he remembered.

“Ah, yes. The second part to your wish,” she crossed her arms again and resumed her glare, “It’s a good thing you are a dragon now. A human mind would have melted at the amount of information that was imparted to you. Just channeling the wish put a strain on me, and I am a creature of magic.”

Amalia looked about to burst into laughter at the sad puppy face Jared made. She didn’t even know dragons could make a face like that.

“I’m sorry Amalia. I thought I had this all figured out. Shows what I know,” Jared said, head drooping, “Becoming a dragon would have been a dream come true but how am I ever going to do everything I have to do when I’m the size of a… Oh… well that’s convenient.”

In the blink of an eye, dragon Jared vanished, and a naked human Jared stood in his place. Amalia stared open mouthed. “I never heard that dragons could take human form, although,” she reflected, “it does make sense in a way. Shapeshifting was one of the more advanced arts practiced on Atlantis, but only ever into regular animals. Even if they could become magical creatures it would only be in appearance and I couldn’t even begin to fathom the amount of power it would take to turn onto something as large as a dragon. What I would really like to know is where all the extra mass went.”

Jared smirked at her, then looked down and yelped, covering his pole and tackle with his hands, then smirked again as clothes materialized on his body. Clothing himself had been as easy as breathing once the knowledge appeared in his mind. He turned away from Amalia and lifted the hem of the T-shirt, running his hand down a set of rock-hard abs he hadn’t possessed since his early thirties. He bent his right knee and confirmed it didn’t ache any longer, and checking between his legs again… yep, he’d felt two testicles alright. It seemed becoming a dragon had completely restored his human body to factory defaults.

“Well, that’s handy,” he commented, turning back to face the Djinn, “As for the mass, it gets shunted to a pocket dimension. It remains a part of me, it just isn’t... here. It’s so weird that I just know that.”

“You may want to take some time to meditate and sort through your new knowledge. Ive never granted a wish so… grand in scale before so I'm not sure how everything will function. So far it seems to be relatively instinctive.”

Jared agreed, “It’s like as soon as I decide I want or need to do something, the information on how to do it just pops into my mind. It’s a little strange, but so far so good,” Jared recalled a few of the spells that Amalia had described to him, as well as a few more he made up on the spot just see what all was feasible. Turns out, it all was. Even the idea he had for the house. Just to test it he conjured a roiling ball of plasma in his hand and stared in wonder. He could do _magic_. He had assumed as much of course, what with turning back into a human shaped Jared, but this was something else entirely. He looked up and caught Amalia beaming at him in pride, “This is _so_ cool. Hold on, I want to try one more thing.”

He made a small adjustment to his eyes and suddenly he could see the mana flowing along with the wind. It was much thicker than he had imagined. Looking down at the ground, he followed a thin stream of mana as it rushed from one side of the island to the other. That was perfect. He had been worried that part of his plan wouldn’t work. Shooting a boyish grin at his friend he crossed the distance and grabbed her up in a hug that she returned enthusiastically. When they parted, they were both smiling like idiots, “I’m glad it worked out for the best. I dare say you will have all the power you need to accomplish your goal. You may even be strong enough to stave off the deterioration of your body from traveling to your own past.”

Jared’s grin faltered a bit but didn’t bother correcting Amalia. He knew it had been weighing on her that he would die after completing his objective. Instead he took her hand and said, “Common, I still have two more wishes left and we’re burning daylight.” Jared gathered his will and teleported them the almost five thousand miles back to the manor, appearing in the den.

Looking around the room, he could now see the various weak wards Harrison had made to protect the house. He’d have to replace them with his own much stronger wards soon, but first… he spotted the slip of paper where he’d written his wishes under the coffee table where it must have fallen. Reaching down to grab it he asked, “Are you okay to continue? You said that the first wish put a strain on you, and I wouldn’t want to hurt you further.”

Amalia just shook her head, “No I’m fine. I had a few hours to recover as you slept. I am as eager as you to see this to its completion.”

“Right,” Jared nodded in understanding. She wanted her freedom. He couldn't blame her. He looked down at the paper in his hand and thought, then conjured a pencil and changed a few words in his second wish to coincide with his new draconic nature. He still couldn’t believe he was a freaking dragon of all things, though it was becoming more and more natural to think of himself as such, “okay… that should do it. Hopefully.”

He peered across at Amalia and she just nodded. “Right. Okay. Here goes,” He inhaled deeply and said, “I wish for a one-time use ability that will enable me to safely transfer all that I gained from my first wish to my younger self.”

Jared felt a sharp burning sensation in his palm and when he examined it, he found a ring of gold runes he didn’t recognize. When he glanced up at Amalia for an explanation, she looked miserable. He supposed his end goal was rather obvious now. She shook her head, shoulders slumped and told him he’d know how to use the rune when the time came.

He sat next to her on what he had come to consider her sofa and pulled her close, “It was always going to come to this. Once I know that my younger self has everything he needs to protect those that matter to us most, I’ll welcome release. Look,” he tapped her temple and showed her what he had noticed when he was examining the ley line on the Isle of Ewe. She gasped, stunned realization on her face. He only smiled.

With acceptance of Jared's intentions, she reached into her pocket and handed him the ring, then, voice trembling, asked, “Are you ready to make your final wish?”

He didn’t even need to look at the paper to make his last wish. He’d been thinking on it ever since Amalia had told him about her enslavement. Staring into her tremulous, hopeful gaze, he said, “I wish for the djinn known as Amalia to be freed from any and all bindings that have been placed on her and to protect her from any future attempts to bind her anew, her will her own forever more.”

As he watched, her eyes took on the molten look he had seen once before and jumped away from her as her skin began to glow brighter and brighter, until he had to shield his eyes. The ring in his clenched fist heated up and he was sure if he hadn’t been a dragon, it would have burned his hand. When the light show died, he opened his eyes and beheld Amalia in all her glory, flaming hair and all, only now she was… more. Her body gave off a soft luminescence almost as though lava flowed right under the surface, and the runes were all gone, leaving behind nothing but unmarred flesh. Jared could feel waves of heat emanating from her, even from five feet away. She was, in a word, stunning. If he wasn’t gay and completely in love with Jensen… When she smiled at him, it was like the sun coming out from behind a thunder cloud.

“Thank you, Jared,” she said, her voice that husky tone he had heard once before, only now there was a resonance to it; like she was speaking with multiple voices at once, “I had forgotten what it felt like to be free… whole.”

Jared just grinned, dimples on full display, “You’re welcome. I’m just sorry it took so long for someone to do the right thing.”

She closed her eyes and cocked her head to the side, “I can hear them calling me home. The symphony of voices, singing through the veil.” She opened her eyes, uncertainty in her gaze, “I am sorry Jared, but I… I must…”

“I know,” and he did. He couldn’t imagine being away from everything he loved for countless millennia. He had barely survived three decades. Smiling softly, he said, “Go. Go home.”

“I hope you find what you seek my friend,” then in a pillar of fire, she was gone, rug smoking where she had stood. He chuckled and with a small exertion of will, the scorch mark vanished.

“Goodbye, Amalia, and thank you.”, he said into the empty room.

He opened his hand and regarded the ring on his palm. It hadn’t disintegrated as he thought it might, only now, the Atlantean spell form that had encircled the band was gone. In its place was an inscription in Draconic that read: ‘Through Flame and Claw, We Protect What is Ours’

A sentiment he could definitely get behind. He instinctively knew the dragons were violently protective of their mates, and Jensen was so much more than that. Woe be to anyone who threatened him. The triangular cut ruby was also changed. It had become a deep violet hue, pulsing with streaks of silver light. It almost resembled… “No. Seriously?”, looking up, he wondered if this was some kind of message from the universe that he was doing the right thing. The gemstone matched the color of his dragon’s eyes.

As he slipped the ring on the pinky of his left hand, the light dimmed, then went dormant. He could feel the ring had a purpose, though what that was, he didn’t know. Putting it out of his mind for now, he walked to the front door, stride purposeful.

“Time to get this show started.”

He’d made sure to part the Navigator in the attached garage the night before, so everything was in place. His new knowledge said that what he wanted to do was not only possible but common practice when dragons still roamed the world, still he was a little nervous as he stood in the front yard facing the manor. “Here gone nothing,” he muttered under his breath.

Closing his eyes, he reached out with his mind, wrapping wove his mana through every stone and wooden beam, every piece of furniture and gold bar, down under the basement floor and up over the highest tower, then once he could feel every molecule of matter and the empty spaces in between, he _squeezed._

Dragon’s had developed this technique to more easily carry their hordes with them. There was none of that silly nesting in dank caves that he’d read about in fantasy novels. No self-respecting dragon would stoop to such a degrading home. They made their homes in open valleys and high on mountain peaks, erecting fantastical, gargantuan structures to house and protect all their treasures, as well as their hatchlings when they were still young and vulnerable.

Of course, Jared’s manor was a fraction of the size of one of those mammoth homes. Still, it served it’s purpose. When Jared opened his eyes, the house was gone, sucked into the same extra-dimensional space as the rest of him. All that remained was a large hole and some severed pipes and electrical lines. He released the breath he’d been holding and smiled. He wasn’t even winded.

“One down. One to go.”

Closing his eyes once again, Jared searched his mind for the information he needed. He only had one chance to get this right. His new knowledge told him that tampering with the flow of time got increasingly more dangerous the more times one did it. Even the ancient dragons had been wary of using this particular bit a magic without great need and had only been cast a handful of times in all of history.

The Atlanteans had been partially correct in their assumptions. When someone went back into the past, the stream of time did indeed split to accommodate the changes wrought by the traveler. What they failed to understand was that the entire time they were in the past, the soul of the traveler was trying to get back to its own time, slowly destroying the body from within. Unfortunately, if there was no vessel for the soul to return to, it went on to its final rest instead. This suited Jared just fine.

With one last revision to his calculations, Jared wrapped himself in his will and with a whispered, “I’m coming Jen,” disappeared.

**~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~**

With a flash, Jared reappeared to the familiar vista from the peak of Mount Garibaldi in British Columbia. He’d made the climb many times over the years, savoring the solitude of being the only person for miles around. Snow covered mountains spread out before him and the blue cloudless sky stretched out beyond the horizon. He didn’t feel the cold, but knew it was below freezing, even this time of year.

“Where the hell’d you come from?”, yelled a hysterical male voice from behind him. It sounded British to Jared but could just have easily been Australian or South African.

“Oops,” he’d failed to notice the two twenty-somethings behind him, and when he turned at the shout, he found the woman clutching at the man’s arm while her male partner held an ice axe in a white knuckled grip in front of them, “Sorry to interrupt, but this was the most isolated, familiar place I could think of.”

They just stared at him like he was insane. He probably looked it. His T-shirt and jeans weren’t exactly appropriate for the environment. Finally, the man asked a confused, “What?”

Jared couldn’t hold in his mirth and let out a soft chuckle, “It doesn’t matter really. You won’t remember any of this after I’m gone anyway.”

The man bristled at that and growled, “is that a threat, mate?” brandishing his weapon as if in reminder that he was the one who was armed, not Jared. He’d probably shit himself if Jared shifted mass and transformed right there, but he had no intention of scaring the poor mountain climbers half to death.

“No of course not,” he reassured the couple, though they didn’t seem particularly assured. He held up his hands in the universal sign of _‘I mean no harm’_ and asked, “Say you wouldn’t happen to know what today is would you?” He was pretty sure he had made the complex calculations correctly, but it wouldn’t hurt to get confirmation. What he wouldn’t have given to have a dragon’s mental acuity when he was slogging through calculus.

And… again with the staring. It wasn’t that strange of a request was it? After a moment, the woman said, “Saturday?” although she didn’t sound very sure herself.

“I mean the date, and specifically the year,” Jared elaborated.

“The 11th of July. 1998,” the answer came much more quickly that time, though she still sounded confused.

One week before his sixteenth birthday, “Perfect, thank you. Now,” quicker than they could follow, he reached out and placed a hand on each of their heads. Sifting through their recent thoughts, he erased all memory of himself from their minds, then teleported a mile away to diamond glacier. From there he watched as they looked around, confused for a moment, before resumed what they had been doing before rudely interrupted them, namely making out. He couldn’t help but grin like a little kid. He’d done it. Jensen was out there, alive, maybe even doing mirroring the young couple on the peak with a fifteen-year-old Jared.

Shifting into his dragon form, Jared wrapped his body in a veil of invisibility and launched himself into the sky, following the ley lines under the earth. He needed to find the perfect place. He had so much to do to get everything ready for the meeting with himself.

The first order of business though, was lunch. He was famished and Canada _was_ famous for its moose.

______________________________________________

Here's how i imagine Tristan's dragon form looks: [Gold Dragon](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/r95/Kurganxy/miguel_regodon_harkness_pzo2102_ancient_gold_dragon_final_2.jpg)

And here's [Amalia](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/r95/Kurganxy/Amalia.jpg)

I just found these on the web, They are not mine, as i cant draw for shit, but i used them as inspiration.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> POV switches to 16 year old Jared here. I'll probably stick mostly to him for the most part, though there might be a little Jensen POV some times. Not sure yet. Its so exciting :)
> 
> I added a new tag for this chapter going forward, OP Jared Padalecki, is just that, he's massively over powered. Hope that doesnt bother anyone, as i really love stories with an untouchable MC. I mean, come on, hes a FREAKING DRAGON with all the magical knowledge of his race plus a number of other powerful races, he cant help but be OP :)

Jared was having a shitty summer break. It had started out fantastic. School had let out in early June and he and Jensen had spent nearly every moment of the next three weeks together in bliss. Since both of their parents worked during the day, it left them plenty of time to be alone where they didn’t have to pretend that they were just best friends who didn’t swap spit on a regular basis. Jared had especially enjoyed all the practice he’d been getting at blowing Jensen, and vice versa. 

All that ended when Jensen’s parents announced that they were taking a two-week trip to visit his mom’s sister in Dallas. And Jared was most definitely not invited. For some reason, Mr. Ackles had been giving him really weird looks lately. If he didn’t know better, Jared would think that he knew about him and Jensen. Jensen had said it was just work or something when Jared mentioned it, but he wasn’t so sure. Anyway, when Jensen had asked about Jared coming along to Dallas, his dad had shot him down, saying he wanted it to be a family thing. Okay sure, Jared got that, he did. It just really put a damper on his burgeoning sex life.

It wasn’t only the sex, though it was admittedly phenomenal. There was no question about it, but mostly he just missed being with his boyfriend. They had spent literally half of their lives together and it was almost like missing part of himself with Jensen so far away. They couldn’t even call each other because of long distance charges. The best they could do was chat on AOL when Jensen managed to get a minute alone with his aunt’s computer and trade emails.

The worst part was that Jared’s birthday was this coming Sunday and Jensen wouldn’t be back until late Sunday night. He was pretty sure that Mr. Ackles had planned that on purpose, though he couldn’t prove it. It wasn’t like it was a huge deal, it just would have been nice to spend his sixteenth with the person he loved most on the world. Hence, shitty summer break.

Jared had decided to treat himself to an Oreo Blizzard on that particular Thursday afternoon in attempt to stave off the mid-July Texas heat. Even with the AC running it was brutal. He was just sucking up the last bit of lukewarm ice cream when he pulled his bike into the yard. His mom would probably be home from teaching summer school English soon and his dad wouldn’t be home till after 6, so he figured he had time enough to take care of some of his tension alone in his room before taking a nice cold shower. Throwing the empty Blizzard cup in the trash as he passed the kitchen, he had just entered his room when he noticed he wasn’t as alone as he’d first thought and froze.

Standing next his desk, paging through his copy of the new Harry Potter book was a tall man with shaggy brown hair. He had to be at least six and a half feet tall and was built like a linebacker. Jared was about to say something, maybe ask who the hell he was or what he was doing creasing his, as of yet, unread book; he wasn’t really sure, but before he could get a word out, the man turned and locked eyes with him, and with a dead serious expression said, “Hello Jared.”

Jared could only stare. He recognized those eyes. He’d seen them every morning in the mirror while brushing his teeth. Not to mention the rest of the man’s features. They were his own but… not. The man, who had to be around thirty just continued staring directly at a speechless Jared, then snorted loudly and roared with laughter, showcasing Jared’s own dimples. _What. The. Fuck?_

“Oh, my gods, your face!”, the man choked out through his mirth. Jared could only stare, open mouthed as it went on for minutes.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s just, I’ve always wanted to do that, and it’s been a very long month. I just really needed that, so thanks,” said the man, when he’d finally gotten control of himself again.

“Um, sure?”, what else could he say?

He slowly padded into the room and closed and locked the door behind him. He’d read enough fantasy and science fiction to have an inkling about why the man had shown up in his room, even if it was completely insane, and he had a feeling he really did not want his mom walking in on this, whatever _this_ was.

Jared examine the man as he got closer. His hair was a few inches longer than Jared’s own, had a couple days’ worth of dark stubble along his jaw, and from what Jared could tell, the guy was seriously ripped. He didn’t want to sound conceited or anything, but… Damn, he was hot! Or at least he would be… one day. Assuming this was him, _from the future…_ what clenched it for Jared however was the little scar on the man’s chin that was an exact match for the one on his own that he’d gotten when Jensen convinced him to climb Mrs. Meachum’s pear tree when they were ten. He had slipped and clipped his chin on a branch on the way down. Jared fingered his own scar, in a daze.

“Never did get that damn pear, did we?” the man broke the silence, making Jared jump in surprise. Future Jared reached up and rubbed his thumb along his own little scar and continued, “I’m kind of surprised its still there, but I suppose it makes sense, given that a lot of my self-image is tied to moments like that with Jensen.”

“So,” Jared gulped loudly, “You are…”

“You?”, the man finished his question, “Yes. And no.”

Jared’s annoyance must have shown on his face because the man, Jared as well apparently, chuckled and said, “Sorry. Here, take a seat,” he gestured to the bed while pulling up Jared’s desk chair, “We have a lot to discuss and not much time before mom gets home.”

Jared was a little weirded out by their implied shared parentage, but sat cross legged and gazed at, well, himself.

“So, where’s Jensen?”

Older Jared sighed, “Of course that’s the first think you would ask about.” Jared wanted to take back his question at the devastation he could see in future Jared’s eyes. If what he could see there was any indication, he really didn’t want the answer. Jared started shaking his head in denial, but other Jared beat him to it, “Jared, I lost my Jensen a long time ago. It’s the reason I’m here.”

Jared didn’t remember passing out, but he awoke wrapped in strong arms pressed up against a hard chest. For a moment he thought it was Jensen he was laying against, but the feeling was all wrong. Peeking through his lashes, he recognized future Jared. It all came flooding back to him then. He’d had some kind of panic attack and hadn’t been able to take in any air. Then future Jared was there, telling him that _his_ Jensen was fine. That he’d seen him just that morning and he was fine… fine… _not dead._

Other Jared helped him sit up and handed him a sweating can of coke. Where had that come from?

“Here. Sip this,” he said, “the sugar will help settle your nerves.”

Jared did as he was bade, popping the top and drinking, as future Jared settled himself back in the desk chair.

“I apologize. I should have known how you would react to that. This is my first time meeting myself too so you’ll have to excuse any mistakes I might make in explaining this.” Jared nodded for him to go on.

“Okay this is going to be hard to hear, but in my original timeline, in a little over three weeks from now, my Jensen and I made love for the first time,” Jared blushed furiously. If there was any doubt remaining it was gone now. They’d made the same plans for when Jensen’s parents went out of town for their anniversary.

“Okay, so you know what I’m talking about. I couldn’t remember if we had already made plans this early or not. So, during the… uhm… main event,” now it was future Jared’s turn to blush. Jared was kind of disappointed that he never grew out of that tendency, even if Jensen always called it was cute. Future Jared cleared his throat and went on, “Jensen’s parent came back to the house and caught us together. I think Mrs. Ackles had forgotten her purse or something. I never really cared enough to find out. Anyway, Mr. Ackles was not please, to say the least.”

Jared stayed silent as he watched his future self wrestle with whatever was going through his head, though Jared already had a good idea. He knew what kind of man Jensen’s father was. It was the main reason they had dated in secret for two years. He was all about preaching fire and brimstone and the damned faggots going to hell. Jensen had said that he never wanted his father to know about him, at least not before he turned eighteen and was away at college, and probably not even then. That the best case he could hope for would be to be turned out on the street. This obviously wasn’t a best-case scenario.

After a while, future Jared seem to break from his ruminations and met Jared’s gaze again. “I didn’t want to have to do this, but I think its best you have all the information.”

“Do what?”, Jared backed away suddenly nervous.

“I want to show you some of my memories. Not all of them of course, and I’ll strip as much of my emotions from them as I can, but I won’t lie to you, a lot of the beginning will be… horrible. Just keep in mind that what you will see hasn’t happened, and we will make sure it never happens. Unfortunately, it’s the only I can think of to make way to make sure you’re prepared for what’s to come.”

“What?”, Jared was so confused, “You have some kind of machine that will show me your memories?” 

“Not… exactly,” future Jared shot him an enigmatic smile, “You’ll understand soon, I promise, but we have to get through the rough parts of my life before we get to that bit.”

He waited for Jared’s reluctant nod of acquiescence, then future Jared motioned for him to get up.

“Sit here in front of me,” he indicated the floor. When they were facing one another with their legs crossed Jared only heard, “Brace yourself.” 

Then, he _saw…_

**~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~**

When Jared came back to himself, he was flat on his back, gasping for breath.

“ _What_ …”, pant, “ _the fuck_ …”, pant, “ _was that_?...”, he managed to get out. Jared turned his head to see that his future self at least had the good grace to look chagrined.

“I’m sorry. I know that was a lot. I had planned to take a bit more time for this part, but unfortunately, mom will be here any moment, so I imparted all of it at once.”

Jared got himself upright, leaned back against his bed, and shut his eyes, mind reeling from everything he’d just learned. Even with the emotions stripped from the memories like future Jared had promised, they were almost too much for his fifteen-year-old mind to handle. His heart ached for everything future him had lived through. He’d never thought himself to be particularly strong or brave, but he had obviously underestimated himself. He’d been amazed at everything future Jared had accomplished in his life, even if it was all in some misguided pursuit to get his Jensen back. Then there was the whole _magic was real_ thing. Not to mention that he’d apparently turned himself into a FREAKING DRAGON!

The sound of a door closing and his mom’s voice calling out his name snapped him out of his reverie.

“Shit!”

Jared lurched to his feet in a panic, somehow tripped over the rug, and would have fallen on his face if not for future Jared catching him.

“Dude, she can’t see you here,” he hissed quietly.

“Relax,” future Jared said calmly, as if there weren’t footsteps coming down the hall towards his room, “She won’t see me if I don’t want her to, but you have to be cool. She’ll figure out something is wrong if you act like a spaz.”

“What? Oh right. _Magic_. We are so going to talk about that,” Jared had just sat down at his desk and opened Chamber of Secrets when his mom knocked.

“Honey?”

“Yeah mom,” he said, voice hitching. His eyes misted as he remembered scenes from her funeral, but cleared his throat and called out, “come in.”

He spotted future Jared, _I really need to find something else to call him,_ standing in the corner of the room facing the door as it opened, and spotted the naked grief on his face as they watched his, their, mom enter the room.

“Hey sweetie,” she looked tired, but smiled at him regardless, “Whatcha readin’?” Her Texas twang in full force after dealing with unruly teenagers all day.

He couldn’t help himself as he got up and grabbed her up in a crushing embrace, eyes locked on the older man behind her back, and said, “I love you mom.”

“I love you too, sweetie,” his mom just laughed in surprise, not understanding what had gotten into her son, but returned the hug just the same, “is everythin’ alright?”

“Yeah, mom. Everything’s fine, just missed you is all,” Jared put released her and backed away a step, not feeling the slightest bit embarrassed. It struck home at that moment, just what it must be like for his future self, seeing his mom again after all this time. And Jensen. He’d mentioned that he’d seen Jensen just that morning. He broke eye contact with himself as his mom said something about dinner being ready in a couple hours and as she walked out the door, he called out, “Actually mom, I was headed down the lake with a few of the guys, so I’ll be back late.”

He received a nod from future Jared before he vanished. He’d understood. He ought to, being him and all.

“Oh, alright hun, I’ll just fix a plate for ya and put it in the oven. I kinda wish I could take a dunk myself in this heat. Just be careful.” He really did have the best mom ever.

“Great, thanks mom. I will.”

Jared followed his mom to the kitchen, grabbing another coke and then heading out. He hopped on his bike and started making his way down the route he always took to the lake. It didn’t take long before he found future Jared, leaning against a tall oak tree. He hopped off his bike and the older man sidled up next to him as they walked shoulder to shoulder. After a couple minutes he asked, “You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. That was just as hard as I thought it would be. It helps to know that we’re going to change things for the better this time around.” Jared just gave a slight nod. It couldn’t get much worse.

“So,” Jared began after they’d walked a good distance from his neighborhood, “I need something to call you. I’ve been calling you future Jared in my head, but that’s a little awkward.”

“Call me Tristan,” said Tristan, smile returning to his face, shaking his head in amusement.

“Right, why didn’t I think of that?”, duh, of course it made sense to use their middle name. “So, Tristan, what now? I mean, forewarned is forearmed as they say, but the only thing I can really do is make sure Jensen and I don’t go though with our plans. At least not at his house anyway. And now I know about mom and dad’s accident, I should be able to prevent that too. Is that it? Do you just go home now, hopefully to a better future?”

He stared over at the older man and waited for his response. They were just walking past a tree lined drive when Tristan searched their surroundings for a moment before apparently finding what he was looking for, then said, “Come on.”

Jared followed him down into a little patch of scrub grass that was sheltered from the road and the occasional car that drove by. Looking around Jared jokingly asked, “Is there where you kill me and bury the body, then take over my life?

Tristan just stared at him, making Jared think that maybe that had been the plan all along. He was just about to rethink his decision to follow the older man into a secluded area when Tristan snorted loudly.

“Sorry. I can’t seem to help myself today,” he stepped closer and placed one hand on Jared’s shoulder before saying, “No, I have no wish to assume your life Jared. I just didn’t want anyone around to see this.”

“See wha…”, Jared managed to get out before there a wrenching sensation in his stomach. It wasn’t painful exactly, but it was certainly unpleasant. One moment they were standing in short Texas scrub grass and the next they were surrounded by carpet of the greenest grass he’d ever seen, and Jared was bent over his knees, trying to keep his Blizzard down.

When he got his queasy stomach under control, he looked around in amazement. They were in a huge clearing in what appeared to be deep forest, completely encircled by tall pines and oak trees. In the center stood the manor house he’d seen in Tristan’s memories. He turned to Tristan and pointed to the house asking, “Isn’t that… Harrison’s house? I don’t understand. Where are we?”

Tristan motioned for him to follow, leading Jared up to the front of the house. “This is for you and Jensen,” he explained to a mystified Jared, “You didn’t see that part of my memories, but I brought it with me when I came back, along with most of my material wealth, which I did showed you. As for where we are… we’re in northern Washington state, just south of Lake Crescent. I arranged to purchase the surrounding two hundred fifty acres around this clearing, then put it all in trust for you and Jensen for when you turn eighteen.”

Reaching the front door, Tristan pulled out an ornate skeleton key from _somewhere,_ and unlock it. He led the way inside and Jared couldn’t help but gape, slack jawed. He’d seen some of it already of course, through Tristan’s memories, but being there was something else entirely. It was the most beautiful place he’d ever seen outside movies and TV, and Tristan was just giving it to him and Jen. He followed Tristan up the stairs and down the long hallway until they stopped outside a door Jared recognized. He knew it led up to the attic and Harrison’s workroom and lab.

Tristan caught his arm before Jared could make contact with the doorknob. He’d wanted to see if the door would open for him like it had for Tristan, but when he looked up at his older self questioningly, Tristan shook his head and said, “I reworked and strengthened the wards significantly for the entire house as well the surrounding land. You would have been burnt to ashes if you had touched that door.”

Jared felt faint as his face drained of color.

“Why the hell would you do something like that?”, he asked hoarsely, stepping well away from the _Door of Doom_.

Tristan shot him a wicked smile, then opened the door, saying, “Come on, I’ll show you.”

Jared cautiously trailed behind the older man, making sure not to touch any part of the door even though Tristan assured him he had deactivated the ward. At the top of the stairs, Jared took in the familiar room. It hadn’t changed at all from the vision he’d seen earlier, with one glaring exception. In the center of the huge room, affixed to a short white marble plinth, stood a five-foot-tall, four-sided crystal obelisk. It appeared to have been carved from a single piece of clear amethyst and was inscribed with markings similar to those he’d seen on the ring Tristan wore. As Jared stepped closer, he noticed thin bands of silver throughout the crystal that pulsed with a soft glow. Even from half-a-dozen feet away, the power radiating off from the obelisk was palpable. Jared could only stare at it in wonder.

“I tied all the wards on the property to this keystone and anchored it to the mana well beneath the house. I chose this location specifically because five large ley lines convergence in this valley, forming a deep pool that the house can draw from to power its protections. Wait here a moment,” explained Tristan as we walked past Jared. He stopped next to the obelisk, closed his eyes and placed a hand on one of the symbols which flashed a pale blue color before shifting to green. After the light faded, Tristan looked back at Jared and indicated he should come closer, “I promise its safe now.”

Once at Tristan’s side, Jared examined the ten-inch wide side closest to him. He didn’t know much about crystals or gemstone but even he could tell that it was flawless. There were twisting facets under the surface that seemed to change every time his eyes focused on another section and the streaks of silver light within only adding to its otherworldly beauty. Turning to Tristan he asked, “Where did you find something like this? I doubt they sell them at the local Walmart, and this wasn’t here in the memory you showed me.”

“I grew it, of course,” Tristan replied smugly, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, “This is a type of crystal called Celestine. It’s a rare mineral only found in a few remote regions of the Fae realm, and is one of the best-known substances for holding defensive magics. It took some work, but I managed to locate a small shard, mounted on a broach of all things, that was on display in the British Museum in London. Then, using a method known only to dragon-kind, I forced it to grow by infusing it with mana, though it took almost a full day to make sure it produced the right shape with no impurities. A chunk this size could buy a couple of kingdoms.”

Jared looked at Tristan, then at the obelisk, then at Tristan again before blurting out, “You robbed the British Museum?”

“That’s what you took away from what I said?”, groused Tristan, visibly annoyed, “I tell you that I made something that hasn’t been seen for over half a million years and all you’re worried about is a little grand larceny? Jared, I know you probably can’t understand this yet, but _I’m. a. Dragon._ The only thing that matters to me is protecting what’s mine, that means you, Jensen, and my parents. I’m not saying that I’d go out and steal and kill for no reason, but in the pursuit of my goal, yeah, a little robbery isn’t going to faze me in the slightest. Now, let me see you hand.”

“Why?”, he asked suspiciously, taking a step away from Tristan and hiding his hands behind his back.

“Oh for Hecate’s… so I can tie you into the wards,” retorted Tristan, clearly exasperated, “I just told you that I would do anything to protect you, why would you think I’d trying to hurt you? I need to pass the wards to you now because I don’t think I’ll be able to afterwards.”

Mollified and a little chagrined, Jared stepped closer and held out his right hand, “Sorry, its just… its been a really weird day. And after what?”

Tristan gently took the proffered hand and pressed it to a different symbol near the peak of the obelisk and said, “After I pass my power to you of course, hold still, this might sting a bit.”

It stung. A lot, though not in any way Jared could describe. It was like Tristan reached into his soul and scrapped a little flake off, then replaced it with something else. It was the strangest sensation he’d ever experienced, and that’s saying something after the day he’d had. When he’d stopped screaming, _in a manly way and not like a prepubescent girl thank you very much_ , he was on the floor. Again. Gasping for breath. Again.

“You…”, pant, “fuckwad…”

Tristan had the audacity to laugh at him. Jared gave him the hardest glare he could and shot him a middle finger while trying to fill his lungs with sweet, sweet air. He could still feel… something in his chest, though he couldn’t tell what, other than it was tied to the obelisk.

When Jared was back on his feet, still glaring at his older sadistic self, he approached the keystone. He reached out and touched it, aware of a kind of… resonance with the crystal he hadn’t had before.

“You won’t be able you manipulate the wards yet, not until you’ve got magic of your own, but they recognize you as their master now. Once we leave the house, only you will be able to re-enter.”

Jared took his hand off the warm stone and faced Tristan, “Yeah, about that… are you going to be teaching me magic or something? Or do you have another genie lying around somewhere? I know from your memories you freed Amalia, but is she free in this time too or is she still locked in that dark box?”

“In a manner of speaking, and no, you won’t be making any wishes,” Jared followed the older man back though the house towards what he assumed led to the back yard, “From what I understand, you wouldn’t be able to anyway. It would be cheating if someone could use their wishes, then just go back in time and get more.

“As for Amalia,” Tristan pulled a silver chain out from under his shirt and showed Jared an exact replica to the ring on his pinky, “I already rescued her from the box. I payed a visit to dear Uncle Harrison and persuaded him to use his last wish to free Amalia. Then I erased any memory he had of Amalia or me and implanted a better version of what happened with Aiden. Hopefully he can find some peace after saying goodbye to his lover’s shining spirit instead of the horror that actually happened.”

They walked out into the darkening summer evening and Tristan stopped a good distance from the house and the trees and turned to Jared and said, “I’m not sure why the ring changed a second time though. It’s not as though Harrison became a dragon too.”

“It’s Jensen’s,” Jared said quickly, immediately knowing it was true, though he couldn’t say how he knew.

Tristan looked startled for a moment before peering back at the ring hanging from his neck and nodding thoughtfully, “Yeah, I think you may be right. I’ll just hold on to it for you for a while longer. Wouldn’t want it to get lost.”

“Why would it get lost?”, Jared asked taking a step backwards when he saw that Tristan’s eyes had changed from their normal hazel to a luminescent violet.

“Because this next part might sting a little,” Tristan lunged forward quicker than the boy could track and placed his hand over Jared’s heart.

Jared screamed.

Fortunately for him, unlike when Tristan made his first wish, Jared passed out long before the second eternity. 


	6. Chapter 6

Jared lay still, knowing exactly what Tristan had done to him. He knew now what Tristan’s second wish had been. He hadn’t thought to question its absence from Tristan’s memories with everything else he’d gotten at the time, but he understood now. He knew once he opened his now amethyst eyes, nothing would ever be the same. Still, he knew he couldn’t lay there forever. Tristan would just have to wait for him to be good and ready to… _Tristan_. Shit! 

Jared’s eyes flew open and he raised his huge head. He immediately spotted his older self slumped in the grass, back to an oak tree, and he didn’t look good at all. Jared started running to we’re Tristan lay, shifting effortlessly from dragon to boy from one step to the next, clothing himself in the same instant; He wasn’t going to make _that_ mistake.

Tristan’s eyes were closed and he was pale except for dark lines writhing under his skin like black veins. Jared only knew he was alive by Tristan’s shallow, labored breathing. He knelt by Tristan’s side and took Tristan’s hand. Or that was intent; To his horror, the limb came apart at Jared’s touch, turning to black ash and drifting to the ground.

Tristan roused then, opening his eyes and when he saw Jared, simply smiled serenely.

“Hey kid,” he whispered, almost too softly to hear, “Finally woke up, huh?”

“You jackass!”, yelled Jared, hot tears racing down his cheeks, “We could have found another way!”

He now knew what it had cost Tristan to travel into his own past. A price that he was now paying. Tristan had only been able to withstand for as long as he had because of the immense strength he’d had as a dragon. Now that he was human again, his soul was tearing him apart trying to return to the future he’d left behind.

“There was never any other way for me kid,” said Tristan, voice trembling. As Jared watched helplessly, Tristan’s feet and then legs faded, falling to dust, knowing there was nothing he could do to stop it, “Shift your eyes to the magical spectrum and look down.”

“What?”, Jared did as Tristan instructed and gasped when he looked down at his chest. Through the tears, he followed an ethereal cord that extended out from him and to the south, right through the house. Focusing on Tristan, he saw the same thing, only his chord went straight into the sky and vanished.

“You see now…,” said Tristan, only head and chest remaining, “protect your Jensen. I’ll be seeing mine soon…”

Jared nodded, chin quivering with emotion.

“I promise. Thank you. For everything.”

Jared sat vigil for Tristan until he was gone, then gut-wrenching sobs tore through his chest, his tears mixing what remained of his future self.

**~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~**

The morning sunshine broke over the trees as Jared walked into the attic of the manor. After he’d woken at dawn, Jared had collected the two rings from Tristan’s remains, then summoned every trace of ash he could find into a sphere and buried it near the back of the yard. He’d pulled granite from the earth and shaped it into in obelisk, inscribed with Tristan’s name. Then he wrapped it in his will and transmogrified the granite into a single piece of brilliant fire opal, enchanting it to make it indestructible and to emit a soft golden glow.

Jared hoped that Tristan was finally with his Jensen again. He couldn’t imagine living thirty years without his own. He now understood what Tristan had meant when he’d said he would do anything to protect what was his. Just being away from Jensen for a night as a dragon was well-nigh unbearable. He knew parents were probably frantic with worry, but he’d apologize once he got home. He only had one more thing to do before he headed back.

As he approached the keystone, he felt it reach out to him. Not in words or even like an animal might call to its master. No, this was something deeper, almost primal in nature. When Tristan had tied the Celestine obelisk to the well of mana underneath the valley, it had gained a kind of primitive intelligence. It could feel everything encompassed by the protective wards that Tristan had lain down around the land that he’d purchased, and for a large distance outside of them as well. It knew what belonged and what didn’t. It wouldn’t concern itself with larger herbivores like deer and rabbits but would keep anything more dangerous out, including other humans.

Anything that the wards deemed dangerous or malicious would find themselves gently encouraged to go around the property boundaries with subtle compulsions. If they somehow managed to overcome the mental compulsions, they would find their way barred when they reach the perimeter barrier; an invisible energy shield that circled the entire two hundred fifty acres of land the manor sat on, including above and below. It also projected an illusion over the clearing and the surrounding area for pesky things like satellites and airplanes. Finally, if by some miracle they contrived a way to pierce the energy shield that was powerful enough to withstand a direct nuclear strike, they would find themselves drained of life to the point of death and then teleported sixteen hundred miles to the deepest depths of Hudson Bay. 

Needless to say, Tristan had made sure the manor would always be a safe refuge, no matter what the world threw at it. Now Jared just needed to borrow some of that safety and make it portable. While he was nearly indestructible as a dragon, he was much more vulnerable in his human guise. While he was stronger, faster, and more durable than a human, he could still be killed if shot in the head by a high caliber rifle. He could easily shield himself from most dangers but keeping it up at all times would require him to keep a part of his concentration on maintaining the shield not to mention whatever else he was doing at the time. Jensen, unfortunately, was still very much human and infinitely more breakable.

Jared had spent several hours meditating on all the new knowledge he had gained from Tristan the night before while waiting for the sun to rise, and had devised a way of providing protection not only to himself, but more importantly, to Jensen when he couldn’t be with him. They were both still teenagers living with their parents and would be for the next couple years, unless something unforeseen happened. Therefore, Jared had decided to create a couple of enchanted items, namely the rings that had been Amalia’s prison. Jared thought she might appreciate that.

Placing the two identical rings on the nearby worktable, Jared closed his eyes and visualized what he needed, then using the tiniest thread of mana, began to inscribe the inner band of one ring then the other. It took him until early evening to finish both rings. It was intricate, precise work and Jared knew couldn’t afford to mess up as the rings were two of a kind and irreplaceable. Inspecting his work, he nodded to himself, satisfied. He had crammed as many protective enchantments as he thought the ring could handle and seeing as how they were made from Eternium crowned with a cut shard of Celestine, that number was rather significant.

The major enchantments would nullify any kinetic force over a certain threshold that came within 3cm of the bearer. That meant anything, from rounds from a Barrett M82 sniper rifle to a kick to the nuts would come to a complete stop before ever reaching their target, kinetic energy absorbed. It would also disperse any harmful radiation, be it from normal fire or a gamma ray burst from a distant pulsar. Another enchantment neutralizes anything foreign or harmful, be they ingested, injected, or inhaled, as well as providing breathable air, going so far as to filter oxygen molecules out of water if the bearer were submerged. Incase all that fails to prevent injury, the ring has several diagnostic and healing subroutines to treat the bearer in an emergency. Finally, if Jensen ever found himself in mortal peril, he could use the ring to teleport himself directly to Jared, no matter the distance.

There were a few minor additions Jared made, like giving him a way to track both rings and a mind activated cloaking spell that would make the bearer invisible, as well as making the ring unnoticeable.

Now, he just needed a way to power all those enchantments. Luckily, there was an endless bounty of mana directly under his feet, and the perfect way to send a trickle of that mana to the rings through the veil, allowing the rings to function without Jared having to constantly provide them with power. He placed both rings at the pinnacle of the obelisk, then touched a series of symbols on its surface. It was almost like Tristan had foreseen the need for this and built in the capability when he made the keystone. Given that they both thought alike, that was a distinct possibility. With the link established, he slipped his ring on left pinky, the ring resizing itself to fit perfectly. Then, sending his will into the ring, he bound it to his soul. Unlike when Tristan had transferred the wards to him, this caused him no pain, and would ensure the ring only ever functioned for him.

Conjuring a simple wooden ring box and placed Jensen’s ring inside, then sent it into his personal pocket dimension for safe keeping. He knew what he wanted the rings to represent, but he would wait to discuss it with Jen. He hadn’t really explored the rest of the house at all but wanted to wait to do that with Jensen as well. Finally, after checking the wards were set to maximum, he gathered his will and, with and small exertion of power, he latched onto the soulbond and followed it, wrapping himself in invisibility and teleporting directly to his mate and his future.

**~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~JJ~~**

Jared reappeared in a small living room that he assumed belonged to Jensen’s aunt. He’d expected that. What he hadn’t expected was the scene taking place in said living room. He spotted Jensen immediately, dressed nicely in a pale green button-down and grey slacks. He was seated on a loveseat in front of a front facing window next to a pretty blond teenage girl that was sitting entirely too close to him for Jared’s liking. Nor did he appreciate the moon-eyed look she was giving his mate. The thing that almost made him break cover and teleport Jensen and himself back to Washington were the words being exchanged between Mrs. Ackles, who was seated next to her silent husband, and another woman Jared didn’t recognize was seated alone in a chair to their right. Jared assumed her to be the girl’s mother from the resemblance and similar scents.

Jensen’s Aunt Maryanne walked into the room carrying a tray with coffee and some type of cake on it, so they had probably just finished a nice family dinner together and were now having desert. Jared wasn’t really surprised that the topic of conversation revolved around Jensen and the girl, Susan. Apparently, it was about time Jensen started dating a nice girl from a respectable church going family like Susan and didn’t they make such a nice-looking couple. The girl just beamed at that. That much was nothing new at least. Girls were always making googly eyes at his boyfriend and Jensen’s mom had tried to set him up with a few girls from their church ever since Jensen turned fifteen. No, the tense set of Jensen’s shoulders told him he wasn’t any happier about these developments than Jared was.

What set Jared’s non-existent hackles on edge though, was the look Jensen’s father was giving his son. He’d seen that look, only he hadn’t understood it for what it was when it was aimed his way the past few months. It was the same look of disgust that he’d seen in Tristan’s memories. Video Tristan seen of Mr. Ackles on the stand at his trial that the district attorney had shown him in preparation of an appeals hearing.

He knew. The bastard had known all along, and them coming back that night had just been an excuse to catch them in something; Jared was almost certain of that now. The worst part was the deer-in-the-headlights expression on Jensen’s face whenever he met his father’s eyes. Jensen had known that his father knew and had lied to Jared to protect him. If not for the cloaking spell, everyone in the room would have heard his low growl of anger, not at Jensen, but at himself for being so blind. Maybe if he’d been more aware, more observant… but he had the means to protect his mate now. He wasn’t just a helpless teenage boy anymore. No would ever lay a finger on his mate again after tonight.

He’d seen the bruises on Jensen’s abdomen and back, but he’d played them off as baseball related and Jared, naive idiot that he’d been, had bought it hook, line, and sinker. He let out a quiet sigh and assuaged some of his self-recrimination with the fact that the Jared of last week had just been a normal fifteen-year-old boy with no foreknowledge of the what was to come or any of the ancient wisdom that came with the information dump he’d received. Still, it took all that vaunted wisdom to keep himself from launching himself across the room and ripping Alan Ackles limb from limb.

It was an excruciating hour later that the girl and her mother left. She looked a little put out that Jensen hadn’t kissed her goodnight. She must have thought she was being circumspect as she felt up his mate’s arm and thigh the entire time, so she was incredibly lucky about the fact she’d left unscathed. Jared had thought about cursing her hair to fall out or something juvenile like that but, with the willpower of a dragon, managed to restrain himself. Barely. She was just a silly teenage girl and he knew she posed no real threat to his relationship with Jensen. Still, it had been a close thing.

Mrs. Ackles and her sister had gone into the kitchen to wash up from dinner, leaving only Jensen, his father, who had been silent the whole time, and an invisible Jared in the living room. When the women were out of earshot, Jensen and his father sat silently on their respective couches and stared at each other; Mr. Ackles with the same thinly veiled look if disgust and loathing and Jensen with a stubborn set to his shoulders, masking the slight tremble in his movements. Finally, Mr. Ackles stood and started for the hall, presumably leading to the guest room he shared with his wife, but not before shooting Jensen a final reproachful glare.

“Don’t forget what we talked about,” he said in a voice too low to carry.

Jensen only nodded once, with a softly spoken, “yes sir.”

Jensen blew out a breath as his father turned around a corner and out of sight. Jared could see he was visibly shaking just from that confrontation. He didn’t know what Jensen had been living with for the past who knew how long, but he was going to find out and put a stop to it. He watched as Jensen, from one moment to the next, shook off any lingering anxiety and stood. His mate was strong, and every part of Jared, dragon and human, found that incredibly appealing.

Jared trailed silently after Jensen as he turned the opposite direction from the way his father had gone, down a short hall, and to a bedroom at the back of the house. He made it into the dark room just as Jensen closed and locked the door then flopped down on the bed and threw his arm over his eyes. Jared had no trouble seeing Jensen in the dark as he watched him a moment, appreciating the long line of his lean, defined body, the curve of his strong jaw, and the scent. The scent was about to drive him mad.

It had been muted in the living room, surrounded by smell of bitter coffee and too-sweet desert, not to mention the cloying, competing scents of perfume from the various women. But here in this room, where Jensen had been alone for the past two weeks, his scent was nearly overpowering. It was sharp and earthy, like a forest in early spring, when the nights still hold a biting chill. As Jared approached the bed, he picked up other scents. A trace of mint from Jensen’s favorite gum. The applewood shampoo Jensen would never admit to using and the musky scent that tended linger in the rooms of teenage boys. Jared decided he quite liked it, at least from his mate.

The other thing Jared could smell was the beginnings of arousal wafting off Jensen. Even as he watched, Jensen pressed a hand to the hardening erection Jared could see through his jeans, making a low groan. Jared felt a bit like a peeping tom just standing there when Jensen didn’t know he was being observed. Determining it would best to stop this before it advanced any further, Jared erected a sound ward around the room, then dropped his cloak. Jensen still had his eyes covered so he hadn’t seen Jared appear out of thin air.

Jared smirked down at his mate and in his best seductive voice said, “I sure hope that’s for me and not Susan.”

Jensen shot up and gave a little yell, then quieted and shot a look at the closed door.

“Don’t worry, they can’t hear us,” He assured his mate, trying to hold back his laughter.

“Jared?”, hissed Jensen, clearly confused, “What are you doing here? How did you even get here?”

Jared sat on the bed and gathered his mate to him, nose in the crook of his neck as he inhaled sharply, reassuring himself that his Jensen was safe and whole. And smelled really, really good. Jensen for his part just wrapped his arms around Jared, obviously still baffled by the appearance of his boyfriend, who as far as he knew was supposed to be over two hundred miles away. Jared pulled back after a few minutes and just waited for the questions to come. He wasn’t disappointed.

“Not that I’m not happy to see you Jare, but what are you even doing here?”, asked Jensen, obviously trying to make as little sound as possible, “And how did you get in without anyone noticing? Wait, no one saw you right, cause my dad…”

Jared shot his head forward and collided his lips with his mates, unable to handle the trace of fear that had entered Jensen’s voice as well as his scent. Jensen melted into the kiss, deepening it automatically. Jared tasted the inside of Jensen’s mouth, tongue fighting for dominance with his mate’s. He gently bit at Jensen’s bottom lip then reluctantly disengaged from the heated kiss. They needed to talk and if they continued making out any longer, Jared knew there would be very little conversation.

Jared looked over Jensen’s face and was heartened that the fear was gone, replaced by a dazed expression, gasping for air. Forehead to forehead, Jared said, “No one outside of this room can hear anything we say love. I promise that no one will disturb us in here.” He’d also set up a minor keep away ward that would discourage anyone from approaching Jensen’s bedroom by making them forget the reason they ever wanted to in the first place

Jensen just looked at him like he was crazy, before whispering, “what are you talking about? My parents are right down the hall…”

Jared shot him a wicked smile, then yelling at the top of his lungs, “NO ONE CAN HEAR U… Mmm..”

Jensen gaped at him, before going pale, his hands coming up to silence his boyfriend, before focusing on the door, waiting for someone, presumably his father, to start pounding on it.

When nothing happened after a few minutes, Jared gently removed his mate’s hands from his mouth, then brought his own hand up to cup Jensen’s cheek, hating he’d just cause his heartbeat to skyrocket.

“I’m sorry, Jen, I shouldn’t have done that,” he spoke softly, gazing into his lover’s eyes. Then shifting his eyes to violet continued, “I promise you; no one will ever hurt you again.”

To Jared’s relief and not a little pride in his mate, Jensen’s scent didn’t spike in fear as he peered into Jared’s slitted dragon eyes, he just brushed some of Jared’s hair back from his face and said, “Tell me.”

So, Jared told him. Jared sat with his back against the headboard and Jensen lay back to chest with Jared’s arms encircling his waist. It was their favorite position, ever since Jared hit his last growth spurt, and after Tristan he knew he still have several inches left to gain. With his nose in his mate’s hair, Jared began, and Jensen listened quietly as he explained about Tristan and didn’t seem all the surprised to learn that his father had the capacity to murder him. His anger was visceral though when Jared told him about the weeks Tristan had spent in a coma after the beating he’d received and turned that anger on Jared when he talked about the several times Tristan had tried to kill himself, but remained silent. By the time Jared had recounted Tristan’s end, hot torrents of grief coursed down their faces. Then Jared told him about the soulbond.

They were quiet for a long while, Jared giving Jensen time to process everything. Night had fallen by the time Jensen spoke again.

“So, they’re together now,” he said solemnly. Jared nodded into the back Jensen’s hair, before placing a kiss on his neck.

“I think so. The soulbond would have lead Tristan’s soul straight to Jensen’s,” he replied, then after a moment said, “let’s call him Ross. I really don’t like hearing your name associated with death.”

Jensen snorted in amusement and said, “fine by me, I never liked my middle name anyway.”

Jared just squeezed him a little tighter. They lay quietly for a while longer before Jared started getting a little worried. _Was it too much?_

“So,” he hesitated, “what do you think?”

“About what?”, asked Jensen, tone even.

“What do you mean about what?”, insisted Jared, “About the fact that I’m a FREAKING DRAGON now Jen!”

“Oh that…”, he seemed to think it over for a moment, then stated, “It’s kinda cool I guess. Not as cool as a vampire, but its fine.”

“A vam…”, Jared leaned his head over Jensen’s shoulder and stared incredulously at his mate, only then seeing the enormous smirk on his face.

“Oh, you fucker…,” barked Jared, fingers digging into Jensen’s side, eliciting a yelp as he tried to squirm away.

Jared trapped Jensen with his legs, not letting him escape the tickling he had coming to him. Then froze when Jensen hissed in pain, wincing away from where Jared had touched his ribs. He carefully dislodged himself from behind Jensen and sat next to his prone lover, looking into shame filled eyes. He’d deal with that in a minute, but first… He slowly unbuttoned his mate’s shirt, starting at the top. Jensen didn’t try to stop him, but averted his gaze, closing his eyes. Button by button, he revealed more of Jensen’s smooth, muscular torso. When he reached the last button, he spread the shirt to either side and spotted what he knew he’d find.

There was a large purple bruise over Jensen’s ribs on his left side, right where you’d punch someone if you were right-handed. There was also an older yellowing bruise around his abs. Jared gently ran a finger over the dark, fist sized bruise and he saw red. A deep guttural growl escaped his chest, startling Jensen into looking at him again.

“I’ll kill him,” rumbled Jared, eyes shifted.

“No,” Jensen’s strong voice commanded as he latched onto Jared’s hand, “He’s not worth it.”

Jared tried to pull his hand away but didn’t really put any strength behind it for fear of hurting his mate, “He killed you, Jen! Tristan showed me what it was like to live with half of his soul missing. He didn’t even know about… this…”, he pointed to the bruises, “You can’t ask me to… to just…” all strength left him as he saw the tears on his mates face.

He let Jensen pull him down to lie next to him and wrapped his mate safely in his arms, face buried in Jensen’s neck, and released all of the pent up pain and grief he’d experienced since he found Tristan in his room the day before. He cried for what had been happening to Jensen without him noticing, and he cried for what could have happened to his soulmate had Tristan not come back to warn him.

He must have fallen asleep because he startled awake when he felt his ward trigger, sending someone away. The room was lightening with dawn and he knew his mom was going to kill him when he finally made it home, but one look down at his sleeping mate made it worth the tongue lashing and grounding he was sure to receive. Jensen lay sprawled out nearly on top of him, arm and leg thrown over Jared’s body and head pillowed on his shoulder. He looked peaceful, almost angelic, with his short golden hair mussed from sleep, his long lashes kissing his cheeks, and his mouth parted slightly; warm, stale breath wafting over Jared’s t-shirt. He leaned down carefully and planted a tender kiss at Jensen’s hairline, lips lingering a moment before resting his chin on top of his mate’s head, soothed after the release from last night.

It was a few minutes before he felt Jensen begin to stir. He groaned softly, stretching. As he arched his back, Jared took notice of another part of Jensen that was already awake when he felt the morning erection press into his leg, his own aching in response. Jared smiled when he felt Jensen freeze, just having noticed he wasn’t alone, then he relaxed, obviously remembering the previous night.

“Morning,” whispered Jared, squeezing the arm around Jensen’s shoulders.

“Morning,” Jensen replies, burying his face in Jared’s chest and tightening his hold, pressing his dick in harder a few times, clearly enjoying the friction.

They had never actually slept together before this. Sure, they had had plenty of sleepovers but one of them always slept on an air mattress. He could really get used to waking up like this, curled around one another.

“Want me to take care of that? I can hold my breath for a really long time now,” he joked, though the offer was sincere. It had been two long weeks with just his right hand for company.

Jensen extricated himself from Jared’s embrace and flopped over with all the grace of a… well, a teenager eager to get off.

“Have at it,” came the glib response, though Jared knew he was just as desperate for their reunion as Jared.

Jensen’s shirt was still unbuttoned, and Jared caught sight of the bruises again as it opened. He shut his eyes and inhaled a deep breath, calming his mind. These would be the last bruises Jensen ever received, not counting any marks Jared left on him. That thought cheered him enough to let go of the remaining anger, at least for now. When he reopened his eyes, Jensen was watching apprehensively. Jared smiled at him, and Jensen relaxed. Fully opening Jensen’s shirt, Jared examined the bruises again before leaning down and placing a gentle kiss on his chest and released a pulse of healing energy that soothed the pain and repaired the damage done to the muscle and blood vessels, as well as the small crack on one of his ribs. He guided the magic through his mate’s body, healing the bruise on Jensen’s abdomen and several more he found on his back. He continued to heal everything he could find including erasing a few older injuries that had already healed by themselves.

Jensen remained silent during Jared’s ministrations, but gazed at him in awe when Jared finally lifted his head.

“Never again,” he stated simply. Jensen just nodded, blinking away tears.

Jensen cleared his throat and asked, “forgetting something?”, while jutting his hips enticingly up and down a few times.

Jared threw his head back and laughed joined a moment later by Jensen. He jumped up and straddled Jensen’s hips, hard cock in the crease of his ass. He pushed down, pulling a gasp from his mate, then leaned down and planted a hard kiss on Jensen’s lips, morning breath be damned. Jensen didn’t seem to mind either as he returned the kiss with fervor, arms coming around Jared’s back and hips rocking into Jared’s clothed ass, and Jared rubbing up against his mates abs. Jensen didn’t last long after that. It _had_ been two weeks. Just the scent of Jensen’s release was enough to send him over the edge as well, both cuming in their pants like, well, teenagers.

Jared lay atop Jensen, careful not to crush him, as he caught his breath. Apparently even dragons needed a little recovery time after an orgasm, who knew. When both their hearts had returned to a normal rhythm, Jared scooted down so he was only half laying on Jensen, head on his chest. He listened to the strong heartbeat underneath his ear and let out a contented sigh as Jensen carded his fingers through Jared’s hair.

“I love you, Jen,” he said, voice gravelly.

“Love you too, Jare.”

They lay together, just enjoying being close again, but after the third time Jared felt someone trying to cross his ward he sighed and sat up. He squirmed a little at the feel of cooling cum in his pants and cleaned himself with a thought, then did the same for Jensen.

“Thanks. That felt kinda weird,” mused Jensen, wiggling his hips a little, “but it’s better than cum drying in my underwear.”

“All part of the service,” he replied, waggling his eyebrows, grinning broadly.

Jensen laughed, pushing his face away, and choking out, “dork.”

“I have to go,” he said regretfully, moving to get off the bed, “I’ve been gone since the day before yesterday and mom probably has the cops out looking for me.”

Jensen bolted up and yelled, “Jared! She’s probably worried sick. She’s so going to kick your ass when you get home.”

Jared winced because, yeah, he’d known that already. He didn’t regret it though, not after the state he’d found Jensen in the night before.

Jensen stood up with him and they wrapped their arms around each other, just holding each other.

After a moment, Jared asked, “what did you dad mean last night in the living room?”

Jensen stiffened at the mention of his father but didn’t pull away.

“He saw us kissing,” proclaimed Jensen, almost too low to hear if not for Jared’s enhanced senses, “about three months ago, behind the house. He waited for you to leave before confronting me about it, and well… he told me to break it off with you. If he wasn’t so afraid it would get out to the congregation, he would have had me off to one of those conversion therapy places.”

Jared just listened, lending his mate as much strength as he needed, just letting Jensen talk into his chest. He could scent no tears even though he could only imagine how hard this was for Jensen.

“Every time he saw me with you after that, he would beat the shit out of me and warn me away. I never agreed to stop seeing you though, and that pissed him off even more. I guess he figured I wouldn’t fold, you know, so about a week ago, he told me he’d go after you next time, and that… I caved Jare, I couldn’t let him hurt you, so I told him id do while they were away for their anniversary. I was gonna wait till after…”

Jared got it, he did. He would have done the same thing if Jensen had been the one being threatened. He tightened his hold on his mate and said, “he can’t hurt me now babe, and… Oh,” Jared exclaimed, releasing his mate and stepping back, “I almost forgot the main reason I came here last night.”

He reached into his pocket dimension with his mind and summoned the wooden ring box to his hand. Jensen didn’t seem at all surprised to see something materialize from thing air. Gods, he loved his mate. He was definitely shocked when Jared got down on one knee and took his left hand.

“Jared, what?”

Jared smiled up at his gorgeous mate and flicked the ring box open with a tendril of magic, showing the contents to Jensen.

“In the future Tristan showed me, people like us could get legally married. I can wait fifteen years to get a piece of paper, but I really want to be able to call you my husband, my mate now. Everything I am is already yours, Jensen Ross Ackles. Marry me… Be mine forever.”

Jensen gaped down at Jared, then at the ring, and finally seemed to understand. He pulled Jared up by the hand holding his, tears in his eyes. He hugged Jared hard enough to make the dragon’s back creak.

“Of course, I’ll marry you, you didn’t even have to ask.”, Jensen choked out, “I’ve loved you since you gave me your pudding cup in third grade, Jared Tristan Padalecki. It just took me a few years to realize it. You’re pretty much stuck with me now, babe.”

Jared laughed happily and broke the embrace first, plucking Jensen’s ring from the box, then lifted his mate’s left hand and slipped it on his ring finger, ring adjusting to fit. Then placed a kiss on the knuckle above.

“I enchanted these rings to protect us from harm.” Jared took his own ring from his pinky, willing it visible again and handed it to Jensen, “as long as you wear it, nothing will ever hurt you again, even if I’m not around.”

Jensen admired the unique ring, then placed it on Jared’s ring finger, following his boyfriend’s, _mate’s_ , lead and placing a kiss on the knuckle.

“What do the markings mean?”, Jensen queried, studying his own ring closely.

“It’s a saying in old draconic. It translates roughly to: Through Flame and Claw, We Protect What is Ours. There’s a lot of subtext that doesn’t really make much sense in English, but that’s the gist of it.”

“No, I get it. Dragons are always really protective of their hordes in all those books you told me about. Its just instead of gold and treasure…” Jensen trailed off.

“Oh, there’s plenty of gold and treasure, but it belongs to both of us. And there’s nothing more precious to me than you.”

Jensen blushed, making his freckles stand out more. Jared smiled wide, dimples creasing his cheeks.

“I have to bind the ring to your soul and seal it so it will only ever work for you.”, Jared explained, taking Jensen’s hand once more, “this might feel weird, but I’ll be as gentle as I can.”

Jensen nodded, nothing but trust and love shining in his mate’s eyes. Jared closed his eyes and reached out with his mind. When Tristan had done this for him with the keystone, he’d had to use brute force to link his soul with the Celestine crystal, causing a shock to his system. Jared had an advantage in the soulbond. He followed that tether, slipping past the nigh-impenetrable barrier that protected all souls. Jensen’s soul recognized his, welcoming him with metaphorical open arms, and heard Jensen gasp though didn’t think it was in pain.

Their souls had been connected since before birth, but this is the first time they’d touched this intimately. It was the most beautiful thing Jared had ever seen; a swirling, shining mass of light, blues and greens mostly, though with strands of gold peeking through every now and then. He was sure Jensen could feel him there, touching a place in him no one else ever would or even could.

Sealing the ring to Jensen’s soul was the work of a moment, then he began to retreat. He was just about to release the connection when something caught his eye. In among the roiling colors was a thin streak of amethyst violet. Jared hadn’t expected that, at least not so early. He would have to talk to Jensen about this soon, but it could wait. Nothing would come of for a while yet. Until then, he would keep an eye on that strand from time to time.

Jensen caught Jared’s lips in a blazing kiss, which he returned wholeheartedly, and only stopped when Jensen needed to come up for air.

“That was”, pant, “almost”, pant, “better than sex.”

Jared’s chest rumbled, pleased his mate had enjoyed their souls touching as much as he had.

“Can you feel the ring?”, queried Jared, “it should be like a tingling at the back of your mind.”

Jensen closed his eyes and concentrated for a few minutes. Jared was just going to guide him through sensing the enchanted ring when Jensen vanished from sight. Jared startled slightly, belatedly realizing that Jensen had used the cloaking spell embedded in the ring.

“Impressive, babe,” he beamed with pride at his clever mate, “I hadn’t even gotten around to telling you about that feature yet. That you felt it’s purpose on your own bodes well for the future.”

Jensen reappeared and smiled at Jared’s praise.

“Thanks,” replied Jensen, then studied Jared for a second, “you’re different. And I don’t just mean the magic. You still act like you, but sometimes, it’s like you’re, I don’t know, older?”

Jared’s eyes turned pensive.

“It’s not bad,” Jensen hurried to reassure the other boy, “its kinda hot actually. It just makes me feel… i dunno… not good enough or something.”

Jared decided to use one of ring’s most useful features. He opened his mind and cast out to his bondmate and _spoke._

**_You are the most precious thing in this world Jensen, and I may have all this power and wisdom that I received from Tristan, but you will always be my first priority._ **

Jensen looked startled by Jared’s voice in his mind, then astonished. He closed his eyes, and after a moment Jared heard:

**Jare? Can you hear me?**

**_Yeah babe, loud and clear._ **

**How? Is it the rings?**

**_They facilitate the communication on your end since you don’t have any magic of your own but its because of the soulbond we share. We’ll be able to speak to each other no matter the distance._ **

Jensen opened his eyes and grinned, “okay, that is awesome.”

“Not done yet,” advised Jared, “close your eyes.”

Jensen complied. Jared gathered every bit of love and devotion he felt for his mate and _pushed_ sending it all down the link. Jensen choked out a gasp and opened his eyes. He stared at Jared like he’d never seen him before, a beatific expression of wonder in his emerald orbs.

**That’s what you feel?**

**_That and more. Not only are you my soulmate, fated to be mine, you are also the mate of the only dragon on earth. Dragons live for their mates, Jen. Even before that though, you were my best friend. My first thought every morning and my last at night, assuming you didn’t star in one of my dreams. You have been enough for me since you walked into Mrs. Addison’s third grade classroom like you owned it and you will be enough until the sun consumes itself in a fiery blast a few billion years from now._ **

Jensen snorted at that and muttered a soft, “nerd.”

**Only a few billion years huh?**

**_Then we’ll just leave earth and explore some other realm._ **

Jensen’s concentration broke at _that…_

“Jared, I don’t know how long dragons live, but I’m...”

“My mate,” interrupted the smug dragon, “you’ll live as long as I do Jen. Did you think that one mortal lifetime would be enough for me? We aren’t the first cross species mating, not even the first set of soulmates between a dragon and one of the mortal races, though it is exceedingly rare. Even if that weren’t the case, I don’t want to brag or anything, but when Tristan made his wish, he specified ‘ _the most powerful mage to ever walk the earth’,_ that means I’m stronger than any dragon that ever lived, so I could have kept you alive indefinitely just with my own magic.”

“Whoa,” Jensen sat down shakily on the bed, Jared rushing over to steady him.

“Breathe babe, you’re okay.” Jared rubbed his mates back, conjuring a class of water and holding it for him to sip from.

“Im fine,” Jensen batted away the glass and Jared vanished it, “I’m fine, it’s just… a lot.”

**_Too much?_ **

Jensen turned to Jared and held out his hand, Jared taking it and squeezing gently.

“Not too much, just gonna take a while to wrap my head around being functionally immortal.”, He got a thoughtful look on his face then asked, “does this mean I’m going to have to learn how to use a sword?”

Jared stared at him blankly, not comprehending the non sequitur.

“You know, for when other immortals come around trying to take my head and become _the one_?”

Jared snorted out a laugh then choked on his spit, breaking into a coughing fit. When he’d managed to catch his breath, he looked over at a smugly grinning Jensen and said, “and you call me a nerd.”

“Hey, highlander is cool,” argued his mate,

“Whatever.”

He leaned over and placed a kiss on Jensen’s forehead, then his lips.

“I really have to get going, and your mom has tried to come back here eight times now.”, he said, standing back up.

Jensen looked at the door, raising his eyebrows questioningly.

“I placed a do not disturb ward in the hall last night,” Jared explained, “it makes whoever crosses it forget why they were there and compels them to leave. She probably thinks she’s losing her mind, but I didn’t think she would be that persistent when I wove it. I’ll take it down before I leave.”

“Is it harmful?”, asked Jensen, worrying his bottom lip.

“Not at all. It’s a very mild form of compulsion. There are no lasting effects, even for mundane humans. Just so you know, you will never be affected spells like that. My magic will recognize you as being a part of me, and your ring will protect you from all but the very strongest mind magics if we ever come across another mage. They would have to be stronger than me to even dent the protections I embedded in it, and as far as I know, there are only a very few weak practitioners even left on earth.”

Jensen nodded in obvious relief, then saw the time on the clock by his bed, “yeah, you should go. I guess I’ll see you when you get released from your sentence after your mom grounds you for the rest of the summer.”

Jared winced, knowing it was probably true.

**_No matter what, we’ll never truly be apart again, love._ **

**Yeah, but it won’t be the same without being able to touch you.**

Giving Jared a quick peck on the lips before backing away, Jensen said, “go home. I’ll see you in a few days.”

“I’m gonna tell them,” blurted Jared, gaze locked with Jensen’s, “about us I mean. And maybe about the magic thing too, though I’m not sure about that one yet.”

Jensen held his gaze before slowly nodding, “Yeah, alright. We already know they won’t flip out.”

Jared beamed at his mate, and vanished, leaving Jensen to wonder in amazement at how his life had changed so completely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Any mind speech will be denoted by Bold Italics for Jared and just bold for Jensen.  
> Also, i removed all the chapter numbers from the tops of every chapter starting with 2, since their just redundant. Sorry about that, its my first time posting anything here.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wasn't totally thrilled with this chapter, but hopefully its ok.

Jared hated that he’d been right. He appeared on the sidewalk in front of his house, hidden behind the big ash tree that shaded the front yard. He wasn’t that surprised to see a couple of police cruisers on the street. A quick mind search showed him his parents in the house, as well as three cops: two in with his parents in the living room and one in his bedroom, presumably looking for clues.

“Crap,” Jared cursed.

He had hoped to have more time before his parents pulled the trigger on this particular scenario, but he had been gone too long. He understood of course. If his hatchling had vanished without a trace on his way to the lake, he would have probably done the same, if not worse. Wait, _HIS hatching? Where the hell did that come from?_

He was interrupted from _that_ weird image by another car pulling up in the driveway. A man and a woman got out and Jared spotted a shiny badge hooked to the man’s belt, so probably detectives. Great. He had considered just putting everyone to sleep and adjusting their memories, but with these two, there was probably paperwork somewhere as well. It would be a hassle to erase any record of his disappearance now.

“Well, nothing for it now,” he muttered.

He waited a few minutes after the two detectives had gone inside, then made his way to the front door. He could hear his mother’s voice with his enhanced senses, and Jared almost laughed at the sound of her berating the cops for just sitting on their asses instead of being out there looking for her “little boy”. His mom was awesome. Taking a deep fortifying breath, he opened the door and walked towards his doom.

Naturally, his mom was the first to spot him when he entered the living room. If he hadn’t known better, he would almost say she teleported across the room after yelling his name. After crushing the stuffing out of him, she backed off, hand on his shoulders and looked him over. He saw the moment she realized he was fine, not to mention he was wearing different clothes to those he had left in as she fingered the material of his shirt.

…and there went the crossed arms and patented mom scowl. That didn’t take long at all.

“Where have you been young man? Your father and I have been worried sick.”, Jared’s dad had come over to stand behind her, stern face masking the worry he still clearly felt.

Jared took in the cops and detectives standing back, the third officer having come in from the back at the commotion. He returned his gaze to his parents and, using his best look of contrition said, “I kind of went to Dallas to see Jensen. I’m really sorry mom. I didn’t mean to worry you.”

“Dallas?”, Sherri cried out in disbelief, “How did you even get there?”

“Um, I hitched?”, Jared said, seeing the female detective frowning at him. He had been planning to say he caught a ride with Tommy’s older brother, but the cops might look into his story, so he needed something untraceable.

The lady detective came over to his little family huddle and said, “do you have any idea how many kids go missing each year hitchhiking young man? You could have been kidnapped or murdered or sold to a human trafficking ring.”

“Yes ma’am,” he replied, lowering his gaze, but only to hide the surprise in his eyes. He immediately pulled his aura in close and masked it, making him seem nothing more than a mundane teenage boy.

The lady detective was definitely a practitioner of some kind, though only of middling power. Still, if she had been paying attention, she could probably have sensed his magic easily, considering he hadn’t thought to minimize his aura which lit him up like a bonfire on a moonless night, at least in the magical spectrum. He hadn’t noticed her aura until she had come closer, not only because he hadn’t expected to find someone with talent, but because she was disciplined enough to control her aura and make it almost invisible. If he wasn’t what he was, he might have missed it entirely. He really needed to be more careful. Just because there was little that could threaten him now, didn’t mean that he wanted to expose himself to any magic users just yet.

Hoping she hadn’t noticed anything different about him, he returned his gaze to his mom, truly feeling bad about having worried her, “I know it was dumb, but I just had to see Jen. He would have missed my birthday… and there was something we needed to talk about.”

Sherri searched his face for a moment, before trading a knowing look with his father that Jared was sure he would have missed before Tristan. Yep, they at least had suspicions about him and Jensen.

His mom flashed a glance at the cops and seemed to decide against questioning him further in their presence because she told him to go to his room, that they would _discuss_ it later. Jared was happy to take the out and hurried out of the room, past the uniformed cops that were making their way to the door. A couple of them looked a little put out that it had been a false alarm. He felt the woman’s gaze on him until he was out of sight. He hoped it was just professional curiosity and nothing else.

His room was just as he left it, bed unmade, and clothes strewn over the floor. He focused his hearing and listened to his parents as they apologized to the police for having called them, then showing the detectives out. Apparently, the woman was Detective Taylor and her partner was named Martinez. He’d have to keep an eye out, just in case. Figuring he’d try to get on his mom’s good side, he used a bit of magic to tidy up his room. The bed made itself as clothes flew into the hamper or hung themselves up in the closet. In less a minute it was much cleaner. He opened the window and coaxed a breeze in to air the room out. While he enjoyed Jensen’s scent, his own teenage musk wasn’t nearly as pleasant.

He used the time to fill Jensen in on what he’d found when he got home.

**I can’t believe she actually called the cops, babe.**

**_Yeah, well. I was gone for almost three days. I can’t really blame them. It’s funny, I had the weirdest thou… Damn, here she comes. Talk to you soon._ **

**Good luck. Love you.**

**_Love you too._ **

Jared’s mom burst into his room without knocking, then froze in confusion at seeing it clean. She shook her head to clear it, then pinned Jared with _the look._ You know the look. All moms have one. It says I’m so disappointed in what you did, and I still love you, but that doesn’t mean your not in serious trouble mister. Yeah. That look. She just stared at him for a minute. Who knew _the look_ could make a dragon squirm. Maybe dragon matrons have the same thing?

“What were you thinking?”, Jared knew she was upset, but his mom was never one to yell, “Dallas? You could have been killed, Jared.”

She took a seat next to her son; Jared’s father was clearly letting her take the lead on this one.

“I know mom. I promise I was safe the whole time.”, he saw her incredulity and went on quickly. “I promise. Look, I’m going to tell you something, but you can’t tell anyone else, alright?

“Jared, I already know about you and Jensen.”, her face softening slightly, before hardening again, “But that’s not an excu…”

“Not that. Though I’m glad you’re okay with it.”, he said, pulling his mom into a quick hug.

“Of course, I’m okay with you being in love honey, but that doesn’t mean I’m okay with my fifteen-year-old hitchhiking two hundred miles by himself.”

“I’ll be sixteen tomorrow,” Sherri didn’t look amused, “okay. Not the point.”

Jared stood and pulled his mom after him to the door, “Come on. Let’s get dad, then I can show you guys why I was perfectly safe.”

**_Hey, I’m going to take my folks up to the manor. It’s the only place I feel comfortable shifting out in the open._ **

**No fair! I haven’t even seen you shift yet.**

**_I know babe, but they were freaking out that I hitchhiked up to see you. I’ll show you soon, I promise._ **

**Fine…**

He could sense Jensen sulking, but knew he wasn’t really mad.

They found Gerald seated at the kitchen table, reading the paper.

“So, is he grounded for the summer or until he’s thirty?”, he joked, setting the paper down.

“We hadn’t gotten to that part yet,” Sherri replied, eyeing Jared, “Apparently there’s a perfectly good reason why he wasn’t in danger out there all alone.”

Jared pulled his dad up my the hand and stood him next to his mom. “Guys, there’s something I have to tell you, and I’m not sure how you’ll react…”

“It’s okay son, we already know about Jensen, and we love you just the way you are, you know, minus the hitchhiking,” Gerald said, arm around his wife.

“He says it’s not that hun, I already told him we knew.”

Jared puffed his cheeks and blew out a breath.

“Yeah, that’s not what I want to tell you, though I appreciate it dad. We can talk about it later if you need to, though I’m perfectly fine with who I am.”

Jared held out a hand to each of his parents and said, “Take my hands and close your eyes. This Is a little uncomfortable the first time.”

Gerald and Sherri shared another of looks that contained a whole conversation before taking his hands and shutting their eyes.

Jared tried to be as gentle as possible, though his parents were still a little green when they landed in the clearing outside the house.

“What is this Jared?”, his mom sounded scared and he really didn’t want that.

“Its fine mom, I just teleported us to northern Washington. We’re pretty close to Mount Olympus actually. What I’m trying to tell you is I never actually hitchhiked guys.”

“How is this possible, son?”, Gerald had his arm around his wife was was looking around dumbfounded.

“Magic,” answered a voice from behind his parents. Jared had felt it when Jensen crossed the wards. He should have expected it.

Jared’s parents spun around and looked even more confused.

“Jen, you need to be careful. What if your parents come looking for you and find you missing?”, admonished Jared, walking around his parents and taking his mate in his arms, inhaling his delicious scent. It had been less than an hour, but he had already started to ache, being away from his mate.

“Okay, you two. You need to tell us exactly what’s going on this instant.”, Jared eased back from Jensen, though he didn’t let him go completely and looked at his mom. He could tell she was still afraid, but not of him. She was just confused.

He walked closer to her and took her hand, “Like Jensen said mom, magic. It’s kind of a long story, and I’ll tell you guys everything, but the gist is that I, well, an older me came back in time to warn me about something really terrible that pretty much ruined his entire life, and in doing so,” Jared scratched at his head, self-consciously,” well, he kindaaa… turned me into a… um…”

“Dragon,” Jensen finished for him, “He turned Jared into a dragon. Which I still haven’t seen yet,” quipped his mate, elbowing him in the side playfully.

“I’ll show you in a minute. Lets just let my folks have a second to process before… you know… that.”

Said parents were just staring at them open mouthed like they had just announced that… well okay, that was a pretty shocking proclamation as these things go.

Jensen was busy looking over the huge house in the center of the clearing. Jared knew he wanted out of his home life and now that Jared knew just how bad it was, he’d been thinking about that too.

“Honey, if we weren’t standing out on the middle of the woods right now, I would think that you were on drugs or something,” his mom finally admitted, “And hi Jensen, its so good to see you sweetie.” Jared watched as his mother embraced his mate, his heart warming at the sight.

“Hey Mrs. P., Mr. P. I know this is kind of out there, but I promise, it’s still Jared,” greeted Jensen.

“Well, of course he’s still our son,” confirmed Gerald, trading back slaps with Jensen, “I for one would really like to see some of this magic though. You know I’ve always loved fantasy novels.”

Jared just laughed, relieved. He couldn’t believe how well everyone was taking this. First Jensen and now his parents.

“Alright. I promised I would show Jensen my true form, though I need a little room for that.”

Jared untangled from Jensen and walked out about twenty feet, then turned back around.

“Okay, please don’t freak out. It’ll still be me.”

Huffing out a breath, he closed his eyes and, with a twist, shifted to his dragon form. It felt like taking a full breath for the first time in two days. He could function just fine in his human guise. Dragons of the past had been known to spend years in the forms of other mortal races like elves and even merfolk. But it was still a little confining. He opened his amethyst eyes and looked down on his family as they stared up at him in awe.

Jensen was the first to approach, unsurprisingly. He ran a hand over the hard scales of his foreleg and gasped, “Its hot.”

Jared chuckled, though in this form it came out more like rolling thunder, “I’m a creature of fire and magic. Did you think I was cold blooded, love?”

“Jared, honey, you’re beautiful,” Sherri exclaimed, coming to stand near Jensen. Gerald nodded in agreement, though Jared could see the thoughts flying in his eyes.

“What is it dad?”

He cleared it throat and asked, “Its just, are there more? Dragons I mean. I know you can obviously turn human if you want, but you would think someone would have noticed a thirty-foot lizard flying around.”

“No,” Jared replied, a little sadly, “I’m the only one left as far as I know. All the other dragons ascended to beings of pure energy and thought eons ago.”

Gerald looked a little sad at that as well. He knew his dad had always had a fascination with dragons and his mother was a huge Tolkien fan. It was why he was almost positive that his parents would be, if not okay, then intrigued enough to listen.

“Anyone want to go for a ride?”

Three sets of eyes widened at his question. The answer was an unequivocal yes. He gently lifted them up with telekinesis, Jensen first, then his mom and dad, and set them on his back, near the junction of his neck and torso. Jared made a thin cushion of air between his scales and his family, not only to make it a more comfortable ride and to hold them in place, but also to protect them from the heat that his body naturally produced. When they were all set, he wrapped them in a bubble of invisibility and gently launched into the air.

It was his first time flying, but he felt as though he had been doing it all his life. He took them on a leisurely trip north over the lake, then out to the west over the coast and finally back around and over Olympic National Park. He truly felt like himself for the first time since the change. He had only been a dragon a moment before Tristan and then had stayed human. He reveled in this freedom to be the dragon that he was and vowed to take time every few days to come up to the manor and be himself. He figured he could bring Jensen with him.

They all seemed to enjoy the ride when he landed back in the clearing, though his parents were a little less enthusiastically than Jensen. He floated them all back down to the ground and shifted back to human. Jensen ran up to him and kissed him forcefully, right in front of his parents. Jared had told him about them already knowing about them over their mental link. Apparently, that’s all it took for him to be comfortable with PDA. Jared was just fine with that.

Jared spent the rest of the evening telling his parent’s about Tristan and showing them the memorial he’d made for his older self. His mom cried into Gerald’s shoulder, probably feeling like she had lost another son she hadn’t known about and Jensen clutched to his side, no doubt imagining the life of this other version Jared and his own death that would have happened in less than three weeks if not for his sacrifice.

After paying their respects, Jared led them all inside the manor, making sure to add his family to the wards, and they explored the insanely huge house that Tristan had left for him and Jensen. Sherri was enamored with the library and Gerald was fascinated with all the electronics that were over a quarter century ahead of their time, literally. This was Jared’s first time really exploring the house, and even with what he got from Tristan’s memories, most of it was new to him. Jensen naturally got excited when they reached the garage.

“Holy shit,” Jensen exclaimed, then blushed at seeing Sherri’s frown, “Sorry Mrs. P. But it’s a Shelby Cobra, and that’s a Jaguar XK120. There’s got to be over a million dollars’ worth of cars in here.”

Jensen frowned when he saw Tristan’s Navigator and pointed at it, “I don’t recognize that one.”

Jared chuckled, “That’s because it won’t be built for twenty-seven years. Tristan got that new when he got the inheritance from Uncle Harrison. The guy was like 6’ 5” so I can’t really blame him.”

Jensen stared at him wide-eyed, then looked sad all of a sudden, “I’m always gonna be shorter than you huh?”

The Padaleckis all broke out in laughter, Jensen joining in a moment later.

Jared pulled Jensen away from his parents when they stopped to examine a 1925 Rolls Royce Phantom, at least according to the resident car know-it-all.

“Which one do you want to take home with us, Jen?”, he asked his mate, with a conspiratorial smirk.

“Are you serious?”

Jared pulled Jensen into a tight hug, “Of course I am. It will take a little work to make these legal to drive, but with a magic to grease the wheels, it will be easy. So,” Jared placed a light kiss on his mate’s perfect lips, “Which one do you want to drive?”

“Actually,” Jensen replied, sheepishly, “I’ve been saving up and I found a ’67 Impala for sale up in Dallas. I’m only a few thousand short and…”

Jared laughed, delighted that Jensen felt comfortable enough to ask for things. He had of course told Jensen about the literal pile of gold and jewels in the basement.

“…And you want to use some of our newfound wealth to get the car of your dreams.” Jared finished for him, squeezing tighter before letting go and staring into his mate’s emerald eyes, “Jensen, everything here, including the fortune downstairs is ours. Yours and mine. You don’t ever have to ask permission to use it.”

“What fortune?”, Jared’s mom asked, coming around one of the pillars that held up the ceiling.

Jared just turned to face his parents, having sensed them coming, and said, “There’s one more place we haven’t seen yet. Lets go down into the basement.”

Jared lead the way, holding onto Jensen’s hand the whole way. Even Jared was astounded by the stacks and stacks of gold, platinum and palladium.

“Dear god, its like Fort Knox down here,” Jared’s father exclaimed, picking up one of the gold bars.

“Tristan had almost all of his inheritance converted into hard currency so he could bring it back with him,” explained the dragon, “I need to liquidate some of this and buy up some stocks that I know will be very lucrative in the coming years.”

Jared had gotten an idea while they were flying that he thought might be an answer to Jensen’s problem with his homelife as well as allowing them to inherit all of it early. He just wasn’t sure how his parents would take it.

“Actually, I need to talk to you guys about something, so let’s go back up to the den.”

When they reached the large den, Jared asked Jensen if he needed to be teleported back to his aunt’s house but said that he didn’t care what his father thought about him being gone. That he was through being his punching bag, literally and figuratively.

Overhearing his comment, Sherri asked him about it, and Jensen told her point blank about what had been happening to him since his father had seen them kissing. To say she was pissed was an understatement. Jared had to assure her than Jensen was safe from his father, which led to them showing off their rings. More tears ensued, from all four of them, only this time it was joyous.

Jared held Jensen’s hand as they sat on one sofa facing Sherri and Gerald on the other. He gazed into his mate’s eyes, seeing trust there but also hope. Jared and Jensen had been holding a conversation the whole time they had been exploring and wanted to talk to Jared’s parents about what they had decided.

“Jen and I have been talking about this and his problems with his dad,” Jared started, turning to face his parents, “I’ll be sixteen tomorrow, which is the age one can get legally emancipated.”

Gerald looked shocked but Sherri didn’t even flinch at his words. She just nodded for him to go on.

“With a little magical help, I’ll pretend to be Tristan and change the terms of the trust that he set up to include a clause that will release the land and house to us if we’re both declared legal adults. We’re both going to file for emancipation. If you guys will sign off on it, I shouldn’t have any trouble convincing a judge to grant it. The problem will come with Jensen’s father, and maybe his mother as well.”

“And you’ll move out here after?”, asked Sherri, voice calm and understanding.

“Actually,” said Jensen, smiling at Jared’s mom, “We were hoping to buy the Traverty place down the street from you guys. We still have to finish school, and Jared doesn’t want to move away from you guys just yet. Neither do I. You have been more my parents than my actual parents for a while. We know it’s a big decision, so we’ll give you guys time to talk about it.”

Jared and Jensen stood up and walked over to Sherri, who had stood up too. Jared engulfed her in a hug and said, “I love you guys. Please don’t think this is any kind of criticism on your parenting skills. Its just something we feel we need to do.”

“I understand sweetie. Give us a minute to talk about it. It’s a really big decision. You two go explore some more.”

“Alright mom, if you want, there’s like nine other rooms upstairs. I figured we could stay the night and go back in the morning. Oh, almost forgot, be right back.”

Jared vanished and reappeared at Jensen’s aunt’s house. He knew right away that they had discovered Jensen’s absence because he could hear Alan’s yelling. It only took a moment for Jared to implant a memory of Jensen getting permission to stay the night over at a new friend’s house. Then he flashed back to the manor. Three sets of eyes looked at him questioningly.

“I had to make sure your parents wouldn’t miss you. Apparently, you got permission to stay over at a new friend’s place tonight,” Jared smirked, making Jensen laugh.

“You know, normally, I would say that messing with someone’s head is a bad thing, but that man has it coming,” Said Sherri.

“I’m glad to hear you say that mom. It might take a little finagling to get Jensen emancipated.”

She didn’t look happy about that but didn’t comment.

Jared took Jensen’s hand and led him up to the master bedroom. They hadn’t really explored the second floor much since it was mostly bedrooms, so Jensen took his time examining everything. Jared just admired him, leaning against the door frame, as Jensen rifled through some of the books in the small bookcase.

“This is our room, right?” Jensen asked, sitting on the side of the bed.

Jared came over and sat next to his mate, running his fingers through Jensen’s short hair. Jensen leaned into the touch and closed his eyes.

“It will be. If you want it to be. It doesn’t really matter to me which room we use as long as you’re there.”

“Such a romantic,” said Jensen, laying back and pulling Jared with him.

They spent half the night talking. About Jared’s magic, about them as a couple, about school and coming out, about the house and especially about what to do about Jensen’s father. They hadn’t come to any definite plan by the time they drifted off to sleep around each other, but one thing was sure: Jensen would be spending a lot more time at the Padalecki house from now on.


End file.
